mr. madoff, what do you have to say for yourself? nd the day bernie admitted to committing the largest financial fraud in history. >> and he said, "i have a confession to make. i've been running a ponzi scheme." [ticking] >> do you think you could pull off this scam today? >> given the same security measures? >> yep. >> easily. piece of cake. >> sam eshaghoff's scam was getting paid thousands of dollars to take the s.a.t. test for other students. he did it at least 16 times, scoring in the 97th percentile of the country. >> i would call him an academic gun for hire. that's what he was. >> welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. i'm bob simon. in this edition, we examine two very different kinds of fraud. bernie madoff's wife and surviving son break their silence about wall street's most infamous criminal. and later, we visit a high school con man who figured the best way to make the grade was to cheat the s.a.t.s but first, in december 2008, bernie madoff confessed to running a $65-billion ponzi scheme, the largest financial fraud in history.

mr. madoff has accused banks of being complicity and helping him in his crime, the banks have denied anyf what he was up to. fox business is reaching out to the banks to see if the any comment on this and we're also reaching out to the trustee to see if the trustees' officer has any comment on this but the bottom line and the headline is that bernie madoff appears ready to testify before congress which may be a bid to get out of jail just one last time before he gets his reward or it may be something legitimate and he has something to say in the form of naming names. back to you. cheryl: adam live in the news room with the breaking news. thank you. well, new home sales are up, up and away again. the index rising in all 20 cities but the housing expert says buying a home is a bad investment. he's here to tell us why. dennis: and the president says a cyber threat is a number one priority. with that in mind, some are calling for sanctions against the countries that right us. we'll see if bill richardson agrees. cyber threat report continues. now take a look at oil. ♪ [ male announcer ] how

mr. president, should have started with yours. he's considered a good politician which is like saying bernie madoff was a good salesman. >> mr. axelrod, she also said the president is an expensive waste of time, appearing in his own reality television show. is this what psychiatrists call projection? >> well, she also said he should walk away from his teleprompter and she read the line from a teleprompter. the whole thing was sort of surreal, but i think the important thing to note is how well she was received here in what is sort of the citadel of the grassroots of the republican party. and that sends a strong message to chairman priebus and others trying to heal the wounds of the party that they've got a lot of work to do. when she ridicules background checks for guns, she's taking on an issue 92% of americans support and she got a big hand for it in that room. that tells you the gulf that exists for the republican party. the problem they have to solve, how do you nominate a candidate who can be elected in this country? if that's the position they're going to take, then they're going to have a hard time doing that. >> this

mr. president, should have started with yours. >> reporter: serving plenty of attacks on president obama. >> he's considered a good politician. which, is like saying bernie madoff was a good salesman. >> reporter: criticizing even her own party's post-election efforts. >> we're not here to rebrand the party. we're here to rebuild a country. >> reporter: which led some to wonder, is she running in 2016? >> sarah palin enjoys the perks of being famous, i don't think that she enjoys the scrutiny that comes with running for office. >> reporter: but she enjoyed poking fun at politicians, like new york mayor michael bloomberg. >> bloomberg is not around. our big gulp is safe. we're cool. >> reporter: if you thought she was lost in the political wilderness, you're wrong. >> sarah palin is better than any other republican politician at presenting herself as an outsider. she's very good at running against washington, d.c. >> washington politicians have a bad habit on focusing of the process of politics instead of the purpose of politics which is to lead and to serve. >> reporter: this morning, there's also criticism, palin offered no new ideas for the conservative movem