It isn’t exactly a taste of his own medicine, but Bernard Madoff could spend his first Christmas behind bars in a backless hospital gown.
The evil swindler is being treated for an undisclosed ailment at the Butner, NC, prison complex, authorities confirmed yesterday.
Prison spokeswoman Catherine Elsea said the 71-year-old fraudster was moved from medium-security to an adjacent medical center on Dec. 18.
Elsea refused to say why Madoff was moved or how long he would be in the hospital, which provides a full range of medical and psychiatric services.
“Potential reasons for an inmate’s transfer are numerous,” Elsea said.
In August, The Post reported that Madoff had told fellow inmates he was dying of cancer, but prison officials later said he “is not terminally ill, and has not been diagnosed with cancer.”
Madoff subsequently proved just how healthy he was by knocking a fellow jailbird to the ground during a prison-yard argument over the stock market in October.
Madoff’s lawyer didn’t return requests for comment.