Victims' lawyer: 'Candid' Madoff explained fraud

NEW YORK -- A lawyer for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme says the financier told him during a 4- 1/2 -hour prison interview in North Carolina exactly how the fraud took place.

San Francisco lawyer Joseph Cotchett said he planned to use what he learned Tuesday to add defendants to a lawsuit to be filed in Manhattan this week on behalf of investors harmed by the fraud. He says he won't reveal before then the facts he learned in the interview.

Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. He was taken two weeks ago to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex, about 45 miles northwest of Raleigh. Cotchett says Madoff was "very candid" and repeatedly apologized to victims.

Authorities say Madoff caused thousands of investors to lose at least $13 billion, telling them it had grown to about $65 billion.