Bernard Madoff: the disgraced fianancier has been attacked in prison Photo: REUTERS
Madoff, 71, suffered a broken nose, fractured ribs and cuts to his head and face after he was reportedly attacked last December by a prisoner who believed Madoff owed him money.
After pleading guilty last year to running an enormous Ponzi scheme which tricked investors out of billions of dollars, Madoff is serving a 150-year-jail sentence at Butner federal prison in North Carolina.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Madoff's assailant was a "beefy" body builder with a drug conviction and a black belt in judo.
Rumours of an assault were denied at the time by the Bureau of Prisons, which claimed Madoff had been moved to the prison's hospital because he was suffering from dizziness and high blood pressure.
However, the Journal said it had been told by three separate sources, including a former and current inmate, that Madoff was beaten up.
Prison officials said they investigated the incident but found no evidence of an assault.
A former Butner inmate claimed that Madoff, who has been in prison for eight months, gave him investment advice when they met in the prison library, where the fraudster spends much of his free time.
Fellow inmates claimed Madoff had garnered some respect in the prison because of the scale of his fraud.
On Wednesday, two former Madoff employees were charged with helping him programme an old computer to generate false records.
Lawyers for Jerome O'Hara and George Perez said they will plead not guilty to charges of conspiracy, falsifying records of a broker dealer and falsifying records of an investment adviser.
