Fraud kingpin Bernie Madoff has suffered a heart attack in prison, according to US media reports.

“The multi-billion-dollar Ponzi monster suffered a heart attack last month while serving the fourth year of his 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison, according to a report.

Federal prison officials declined to comment on Madoff’s medical history or condition, but did confirm to CNBC that he is back in Butner Federal Correctional Complex, a medium security facility 25 miles northwest of Raleigh,” reports The New York Post.

The paper prison spokesman Chris Burke as saying: “He’s currently at our facility in Butner. For any inmate we wouldn’t comment, due to our own privacy regulations and federal [medical disclosure] law.”

Madoff told CNBC in an email that he was hospitalised last month at Duke University Medical Center, says The Post, adding that Madoff, 75, also has stage-four kidney disease but is not undergoing dialysis.

Madoff defrauded investors in a $17 billion Ponzi scheme. He pleaded guilty in 2009.

Five former key staffers are currently on trial in Manhattan federal court for their alleged roles in the massive fraud.

His only surviving son, Andrew Madoff, 47, is currently receiving treatment for stage-four cancer. Son Mark Madoff, 46, hanged himself in his SoHo apartment on Dec. 11, 2010, the second anniversary of his dad’s arrest.

“His ex-wife, Ruth, 71, now lives in Greenwich, Conn.,” reports The Post.

•Photo shows fraud kingpin Bernie Madoff.