Swindler Bernard Madoff was temporarily moved to a prison in Atlanta from New York and was in transit to yet another facility on Tuesday, a U.S. official said.

A spokeswoman at the Federal Bureau of Prisons said Madoff "had left Atlanta and was in transit" after U.S. prison records showed that the disgraced financier was taken to the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, from his New York jail cell.

Prison officials in New York and Washington declined comment on reports by the Wall Street Journal and CNBC that Madoff was going to serve his effective life term at a medium security prison in Butner, North Carolina. The prison is an eight-hour drive from New York.

He was sentenced on June 29 to a total of 150 years on several criminal charges, including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury for a Ponzi scheme amounting to as much as $65 billion. A Ponzi scheme is one in which early investors are paid with money from new clients.

The Bureau web site, www.bop.gov, which provides locations of inmates, listed his full name Bernard Lawrence Madoff, his prison number 61727-054, age 71, race, gender, projected release date of Nov. 14, 2139 and location of the Atlanta prison