Washington, Oct 22 : Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff has written a letter to his daughter-in-law from prison, saying that that he is "quite the celebrity" and is being treated "like a Mafia don" there, the latter has claimed.

Madoff''s daughter-in-law Stephanie Madoff Mack, whose husband Mark committed suicide two years after his father was convicted, said that she has written a letter to Bernie detailing family events he was missing due to his life sentence of 150 years behind bars to make him feel awful.

"I thought that that would really sting him," Mack said, adding that her plan backfired, The Telegraph reports.

However, Bernie wrote back a letter to her boasting of how well he is treated in jail, and that he feels much safer there than in the streets of New York.

"As you can imagine, I am quite the celebrity, and am treated like a Mafia don," Madoff wrote from the North Carolina prison where he is incarcerated.

"They call me either Uncle Bernie or Mr. Madoff. I can''t walk anywhere without someone shouting their greetings and encouragement, to keep my spirit up. It''s really quite sweet, how concerned everyone is about my well being, including the staff ... It''s much safer here than walking the streets of New York," he added.

Mack, who considers her father-in-law to be responsible for her husband’s death, described her reaction as having been "sick to my stomach," but said she didn''t think she ever showed the letter to Mark.

"My husband was in terrible, terrible pain. He was so deeply hurt by it all, that he just, he, he just couldn''t move past it,” he said.

Mark Madoff committed suicide in December, two years to the day after Madoff''s arrest in the over 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme, the biggest in U. S. history. (ANI)