Victims of notorious pyramid schemer Bernie Madoff have received their final payments, with total payments from the compensation fund exceeding $4.3 billion, the Federal Reserve announced Monday.
The Madoff Victims Fund has begun distributing its 10th and final payment of $131.4 million to more than 23,000 victims around the world, according to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office.
The Justice Department established the fund more than a decade ago to repay those defrauded by Madoff. Madoff died in prison in 2021 while serving a 150-year sentence.
A total of 40,930 Madoff victims in 127 counties have recovered more than $4.3 billion, or 93.71% of their losses, according to federal authorities.
Madoff's massive rip-off (considered the largest stock fraud in history) came to light about 16 years ago, during the financial crisis of the late 2000s.
The accused fraudster was found guilty in 2009 of 11 financial crimes, including fraud, money laundering and perjury, for defrauding investors, friends and family through a fraudulent wealth management company he founded in 1960. I admitted it.
Beginning in the 1990s, the fraudster, through his company, Bernie L. Madoff Investment Securities, solicited money from others with the promise of investing it, but never actually invested it, the judge acknowledged in court. .
His victims include charities and retirees who entrusted their savings to him, as well as New York University, the International Olympic Committee, former Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, and legendary Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. , and celebrities such as Hollywood couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. .
Madoff's fraud has been linked to at least four suicides, including his eldest son Mark, who hanged himself on December 11, 2010, two years after his father's arrest.
Madoff's second son, Andrew, also blamed Madoff for a recurrence of mantle cell lymphoma, a rare cancer that killed him in 2014.
Madoff was sentenced to a century and a half in prison in June 2009.
He and his co-conspirators, including his brother Peter Madoff, were forced to split their ill-gotten gains as part of an indictment by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office — with the funds used to repay victims. federal authorities said.
Additionally, prosecutors say about $2.2 billion of the victim compensation fund came from the estate of deceased Madoff financier Jeffrey Picower, and another $1.7 billion was part of a deal with JPMorgan Chase Bank. It is said that it was collected as
“Our office has never stopped pursuing justice for the victims of the largest pyramid scheme in history,” Manhattan Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said in a statement.
Kim added that the Justice Department is “committed to protecting and supporting crime victims, no matter how long it takes or how complex the effort is.”
Madoff asked for compassionate release in 2020, claiming he had only months to live due to kidney disease.
His request for release was rejected, however, after about 500 victims wrote a letter to the judge saying Madoff should die in prison.
In 2019, he asked President Trump to reduce his sentence, but he was unsuccessful.
Madoff passed away at the age of 82 on April 14, 2021, at a federally locked-down facility in North Carolina due to kidney disease and high blood pressure.
