Teacher:In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: File photo taken in 2009 shows Ponzi scheme architect Bernard Madoff leaves Manhattan federal court in New York City after a hearing. (Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images) 
  
 Bernard Madoff is criticizing a court trustee he says has unfairly argued the Ponzi scheme mastermind's two sons should have known the family-run investment advisory business was a fraud and their compensation from another subsidiary was unrealistically high. 
  
 "As difficult as it is for me to live with the pain I have inflicted on so many, there is nothing to compare with the degree of pain I endure with the loss of my sons Mark and Andy," Madoff wrote in a Friday email to NBC News, referring to the now-deceased siblings. 
  
 "I live with the knowledge that they never forgave me for betraying their love and trust," added Madoff, who is serving a 150-year prison term for the infamous fraud that stole as much as $20 billion from thousands of investors. "As much as I tried to reach out to them in an attempt to explain the circumstances that caused my betrayal, they could not find it possible to forgive me." 
  
 Mark and Andrew Madoff were investigated after the Ponzi scheme collapsed in Dec. 2008 and they turned their father in investigators. They were never charged with any criminal wrongdoing, however. Their mother, Ruth Madoff, who has also been an investigation subject, similarly has not been charged. 
  
 Andrew Madoff, 48, died in September 2014 after a long battle with cancer. Mark Madoff, 46, committed suicide by hanging himself at his New York City home on Dec. 11, 2010. That date marked the second anniversary of the scam's implosion. 
  
 Despite the absence of criminal charges, Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee who's pursuing Bernard Madoff's assets on behalf of victimized investors, is pursuing recovery claims from the estates left by the disgraced financier's sons. A third amended court complaint, filed in July, seeks recovery of funds held by the estates and the former wives of Madoff's sons. 
  
 Alleging that Madoff's investment advisory business "operated as if it were the family piggy bank," the complaint alleged that the sons and former spouses directly or indirectly received "huge sums of customer property. 
  
 The complaint alleged that misappropriations from Madoff's former clients "ranged from the extraordinary" such as funds to purchase multi-million dollar vacation homes, "to the mundane," including payment of monthly credit card charges for restaurants, vacations, and clothing. 
  
 Madoff, 76, wrote that he's trying to protect his sons' legacy by repeating his claims that they neither knew nor should have been expected to know about the fraud. 
  
 "The Trustee claimed that my sons should have known that I was not executing any trades for my advisory clients. I have gone to great lengths to counter this claim by explaining that like all brokerage firms, we were required to have 'Chinese Walls' in place to avoid any conflict of interest between our different departments, wrote Madoff. 
  
 The departments where his sons worked were located two floors away from the bogus investment advisory business and were "staffed with entirely different personnel," Madoff added. 
  
 He also attacked what he said were Picard's claims Andrew and Mark Madoff should have known they were receiving unrealistically excessive salaries and other compensation from the family business. 
  
 "The fact that both were compensated at the same rate as the one hundred traders that they managed, a rate of 25% of their trading profits, which is industry standard for market making and proprietary trading firms similar to Madoff, seemed to escape the Trustee's consideration," wrote Madoff. 
  
 Picard shrugged off the criticism. 
  
 "As the perpetrator of the largest fraud in history, Mr. Madoff's credibility is highly suspect and his assertions bring no substantive value. We stand by our filings, which speak for themselves, and we intend to pursue recoveries against both estates," said Amanda Remus, a spokeswoman for Picard. 
  
 Madoff similarly used emails in September and October in an effort to raise doubts about the criminal convictions of five former employees who were convicted of knowingly aiding and profiting from the decades-long fraud. 
  
 That effort failed. The ex-staffers were sentenced to prison terms that ranged from 2 1/2 years to 10 years. They are scheduled to surrender within the next several weeks. 
  
 Federal prosecutors have filed a court motion signaling plans to challenge the punishment on grounds that the sentences were too lenient. 
  
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1BS4RYX ||||| Despite a federal criminal investigation in which 15 people were convicted and a major bank paid a multibillion dollar penalty, Bernard Madoff is still insisting he acted alone in his epic fraud. 
  
 The assertion comes in a series of e-mails to CNBC and NBC from the federal prison where Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence. U.S. authorities recently signaled that the six-year criminal investigation into the scam was nearing an end, when they moved for the immediate sentencing of the last remaining cooperating witnesses. 
  
 In the new e-mails, Madoff takes pains to defend his two sons, both of whom have died. Mark Madoff committed suicide in 2010, and Andrew Madoff succumbed to cancer last year. 
  
 "As difficult as it is for me to live with the pain I have inflicted on so many, there is nothing to compare with the degree of pain I endure with the loss of my sons Mark and Andy," Madoff wrote in an e-mail dated Thursday and received Friday. 
  
 "As difficult as it is for me to live with the pain I have inflicted on so many, there is nothing to compare with the degree of pain I endure with the loss of my sons Mark and Andy." 
  
 "I live with the knowledge that they never forgave me for betraying their love and trust. As much as I tried to reach out to them in an attempt to explain the circumstances that caused my betrayal they could not find it possible to forgive me. I do understand their unwillingness. The fact that I was trying to protect our family by sheltering them from any knowledge or involvement in my wrong doing still fails to allow me to forgive myself." 
  
 Madoff insisted in a separate e-mail that he led his family, employees and the SEC to believe that years of stock trades that turned out to be fictional were carried out on an overseas electronic trading platform known as PRIMEX, a joint venture between his firm and several Wall Street investment banks. 
  
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 First comments in a year 
  
 "Because the SEC was well aware of how PRIMEX worked and the global reach and capability to execute the trades with any firm linked into the system, this explanation made perfect sense to them," Madoff wrote in an email dated Tuesday. 
  
 The comments are Madoff's first in a year—a year in which five former employees were convicted for their roles covering up the scam, and in which Andrew Madoff died in September after a long battle with cancer. 
  
 Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee seeking to recover funds for victims, had sued both of Madoff's sons claiming they knew or should have known about the fraud, in part based on money they received from their father's firm. The suits continue against the sons' estates. Both had claimed they could not have known about the fraud, since it occurred in a part of the business they had no involvement in. 
  
 Their father agrees. 
  
 "The Trustee claimed that my sons should have known that I was not executing any trades for my advisory clients. I have gone to great lengths to counter this claim by explaining that like all brokerage firms, we were required to have 'Chinese Walls' in place to avoid any conflict of interest between our different departments like the market making that Mark managed and the proprietary trading department that Andy managed from the investment advisory department managed by me." 
  
 A spokeswoman for Picard's office provided a response to the most recent emails to CNBC. 
  
 "The SIPA Trustee and his Counsel stand by their usual statement—that as the perpetrator of the largest fraud in history, Mr. Madoff's credibility is highly suspect and his assertions bring no substantive value. We stand by our filings, which speak for themselves, and we intend to pursue recoveries against both estates," Amanda Remus, the SIPA Trustee & Counsel's spokeswoman for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities wrote to CNBC. 
  
 "Regarding the decision in London, which Madoff references, we would note that it involved a narrow action related to directors' liability, and is unrelated to the SIPA Trustee's action which details fictitious trading in their Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) accounts and sham loans to the Madoff brothers," she added. |||||
Student:
Bernie Madoff is trying to clear the names of his dead sons caught up in his mammoth Ponzi scheme. In emails to NBC, the 76-year-old insists that Andrew and Mark never knew about his illegal dealings. Andrew died of cancer last year at age 48, and Mark committed suicide at age 46 in 2010. "As difficult as it is for me to live with the pain I have inflicted on so many, there is nothing to compare with the degree of pain I endure with the loss of my sons Mark and Andy," Madoff wrote. "I live with the knowledge that they never forgave me for betraying their love and trust." Madoff wrote that he shielded them from the fraud, and he slammed court-appointed trustee Irving Picard for asserting that they must have known about it, given their fat paychecks. His defense isn't just about preserving their names—Picard is suing the younger Madoffs' estates on behalf of victims. A spokesperson for PIcard quickly dismissed Madoff's claims, reports USA Today. "As the perpetrator of the largest fraud in history, Mr. Madoff's credibility is highly suspect and his assertions bring no substantive value."