Thinking Madoff

Just a quick thought about Bernie. It occurred to me that he missed a golden opportunity (not making light of anything that has happened) here. Losses of 40-50% over the last year are not uncommon at all for funds. Seems to me if he was comfortable lying to his investors about returns, he should have made up a lie about how bad he sucked it over last year - report a 70% loss due to extraordinary market conditions. If his investors money was really just sitting there, not invested in a tanking market (we know he wasn't buying anything), he should have had plenty of dough to pay redemptions at $.30 on the dollar. No?