The fall of Bernard Madoff and the beginning of the end of Cargo Cult Multiculturalis

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https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/bernie-madoff-victims-to-get-another-378-5-million-payout/

Bernie Madoff victims to get another $378.5 million payout
By Rebecca Rosenberg
April 20, 2020 | 5:52pm

The Justice Department announced Monday another $378.5 million in funds will be paid out to Bernie Madoff kike victims.

It is the fifth payment from the Madoff Victim Fund, bringing the total distribution to date to $2.7 billion, according to a release from the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan.

The sum will be sent to more than 26,000 victims worldwide. With all sources of compensation, the Ponzi schemer’s victims will recoup 73.65 percent of their loss, the statement said.

“This extraordinary level of recovery represents this office’s ongoing and tireless commitment to compensating the victims who suffered as a result of Madoff’s predatory criminal scheme,” Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.

The Justice Department has so far recovered more than $4 billion tied to Madoff’s fraud collected from civil forfeiture actions, including $2.2 billion from the estate of deceased investor Jeffry Picower, officials said.

Picower had profited handsomely from the swindle and was a longtime friend of Madoff whose $65-billion Ponzi scheme was the largest in history.

Madoff, 81, filed a motion for compassionate release in February, arguing that he had advanced kidney disease and had at most 18 months to live. The motion is still pending.

It’s been nearly 11 years since Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty to 11 federal felonies, including securities fraud and money laundering.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/12/10/bernie-madoff-victims-to-get-another-488m-payout-doj/

Bernie Madoff victims to get another $488 million payout, DOJ says
By Rebecca Rosenberg
December 10, 2020 | 8:29pm | Updated

Bernie Madoff victims will get another $488 million in recovered funds, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.

The cash will go to nearly 37,000 victims across the globe, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.

It is the sixth Madoff Victim Fund payout, bringing the total amount distributed to almost $3.2 billion, the statement said.

The notorious scammer’s victims have now recouped 80.05 percent of their total losses, officials said.

“This is an extraordinary level of recovery for a Ponzi scheme — but our work is not yet finished, and the office’s tireless commitment to compensating the victims who suffered as a result of Madoff’s heinous crimes continues,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in a statement.

It has been more than 11 years since Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felonies, admitting to turning his wealth management business into a massive $65 billion fraud that ripped off friends and family.

He was sentenced to 150 years in prison for running the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

Last summer, a federal judge denied his motion for compassionate release. His lawyers said he has advanced kidney disease and only 18 months to live.

 

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https://nypost.com/2021/04/14/bernie-madoff-infamous-ponzi-schemer-dead-at-82/

Bernie Madoff, infamous Ponzi schemer, dead at 82
By Bruce Golding
April 14, 2021 | 9:40am | Updated

Bernie Madoff
Getty Images


Bernie Madoff, whose $65 billion Ponzi scheme made him one of the world’s most-hated criminals and destroyed even his own family, has died at the secure federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina, where he was serving a 150-year prison sentence, according to a report Wednesday.

The Associated Press reported the 82-year-old scam king, who had been suffering from end-stage kidney disease and other chronic ailments, died of natural causes.

Madoff would have turned 83 on April 29.

His epic stock fraud, which came to light amid the global financial crisis of the late 2000s and remains the biggest in Wall Street history, left more than 37,000 victims in 136 countries in its wake.

Burned investors ranged from retirees who entrusted him with their lives’ savings to celebrities such as Hollywood power couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, former Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg and legendary baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.

A raft of schools and non-profit organizations also took devastating hits, including Yeshiva University — where Madoff served on the board and which lost more than $100 million, about 8 percent of its endowment.

New York University, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and the International Olympic Committee were also ripped off, as were several municipal and union pension funds.

Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz were among the investors who cashed out their phony profits but later had to pay back ill-gotten gains — forcing them to sell a minority stake in the team and to slash its payroll with predictably disastrous results.

Madoff’s massive rip-off was tied to at least four suicides, including that of his elder son, Mark, who hanged himself on the second anniversary of the fraudster’s 2008 arrest and left behind a bitter note.

“Bernie, now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit. F–-k you,” wrote Mark, 48.

Younger son Andrew also blamed Madoff for the recurrence of the rare cancer, mantle-cell lymphoma, that killed him in 2014, also at 48.

“One way to think of this is the scandal and everything that happened killed my brother very quickly. And it’s killing me slowly,” Andrew told People magazine about a year and a half before he died.

Andrew further vowed: “Even on my deathbed, I will never forgive him for what he did.”

Madoff’s wife, Ruth, never divorced him but told “60 Minutes” in 2011 that she hadn’t spoken to him since Mark’s suicide.

In 2017, The Post tracked her down in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, where she was living in virtual exile in a 989-square-foot rental apartment.

Public outrage against Madoff led to angry protests outside the Manhattan federal courthouse where he was prosecuted and the Upper East Side apartment building where he lived in a duplex penthouse.

Ahead of one trip to the court, during which he wore a bulletproof vest under his jacket, Madoff was confronted by a mob that had to be held back by metal barricades — as well as an enraged financial trader who held up a signing that said: “Bernie, it’s not too late to do the right thing: JUMP!”

The dramatic arc of the scandal led to countless news reports, dozens of books and an ABC miniseries starring Richard Dreyfuss and an Emmy-nominated HBO movie with Robert De Niro in the title role.

A Queens native, Madoff founded his eponymous financial firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, in 1960 and began as “market maker” who accepted buy and sell orders from brokerage houses.

Instead of charging a commission, Madoff pocketed the 12-1/2 cents spread between the bidding and asking prices, and raked in massive profits by paying brokerages a few cents per trade to provide him with a huge volume of orders.

His success led him to be named chairman of the NASDAQ three times and he also launched a hedge fund that he used to carry out his Ponzi scheme.

Madoff claimed to employ a “split strike conversion” investment strategy that consistently generated profits of 12 to 15 percent a year regardless of market conditions.

He cultivated an air of exclusivity by tightly controlling access to the fund, while also employing one of the oldest tricks in the book — the affinity fraud — by primarily targeting the wealthy Jewish communities of New York and Florida of which he was a member.

The Securities Exchange Commission was repeatedly warned about Madoff as early as 1992 — including in a 21-page, 2005 analysis by independent account expert Harry Markopolos titled “The World’s Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud” — but Madoff successfully duped investigators during five inquiries.

A 2009 inspector general’s report later found that “a thorough and competent investigation or examination was never performed,” leading to the discipline of eight SEC employees.

But the inspector general found no wrongdoing with regard to the “romantic relationship” between former SEC Assistant Director Eric Swanson and Madoff’s niece, Shana Madoff, who was his firm’s compliance lawyer. The couple began dating in 2006 and married in 2007; she now works as a yoga instructor in Westport, Connecticut.

Madoff ran his scam from the 17th floor of the iconic Lipstick Building at East 53rd Street and Third Avenue, where his legitimate, market-making business was housed upstairs on the 18th and 19th floors.

There, he insisted on decorating virtually everything in black or gray, and was obsessed with cleanliness and orderliness to the point that he was seen dusting the two-foot sculpture of a screw behind his desk, aligning the rugs in the lobby and insisting that all the blinds were hung at the same height and all the computer monitors were level and angled identically.

Madoff even repeatedly dropped his trousers — in full view of male and female employees alike — to ensure sure his shirt buttons were lined up properly.

But his carefully constructed house of cards collapsed on Dec. 11, 2008, when he was busted by the FBI for securities fraud.

The arrest came as a result of a tip by his sons, who both worked for his market-making business, to whom he had confessed the night before — ahead of his company’s Christmas party — that his hedge fund was “all just one big lie” and “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme” that was on the brink of being tapped out.

When FBI agents showed up at his penthouse, one told him they were there “to find out if there’s an innocent explanation.”

“There is no innocent explanation,” Madoff confessed before being hauled off in handcuffs.

He was released on bond and pleaded guilty as charged in March 2009 to 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, false statements, perjury, making a false filing to the SEC and theft from an employee benefit plan.

During a 10-minute recitation of his crimes, Madoff said he began his scam in the early 1990s and admitted that “I knew what I was doing was wrong, indeed criminal.”

“When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients,” he claimed.

“As the years went by I realized this day, and my arrest, would inevitably come.”

Judge Denny Chin immediately revoked Madoff’s bond and later sentenced him to the maximum punishment for his “extraordinarily evil” crimes during a proceeding at which nine victims spoke, with some breaking down in tears as they described how he’d ruined their lives.

“I used to think that it didn’t matter if he got 150 years — what would that do for the victims?” Sharon Lissauer said.

“But now . . . I think he should spend his whole life in jail because what he has done is just despicable.”

For his part, Madoff delivered a monotone apology during which he said, “I live in a tormented state now, knowing of all the pain and suffering that I have created.”

At one point, Madoff turned briefly to face the packed gallery.

“I am sorry. I know that doesn’t help you,” he said.

Following Madoff’s sentencing, authorities sold off his penthouse on East 64th Street, as well as a beach house in Montauk, Long Island; a sprawling, waterfront home in Palm Beach, Florida; and a Mediterranean-style village in Cap d’Antibes on the French Riviera.

The feds also arranged several auctions of the treasure trove of luxury possessions that he and his wife accumulated, including high-end jewelry, watches, fine wines, antique furniture, multiple sculptures of bulls and a fur coat that tried in vain to take with her when US deputy marshals evicted her from the penthouse.

A blue satin Mets team jacket with Madoff’s last name embroidered in orange on the back sold for $14,500 and 14 pairs of his boxer shorts went for $200.

Bernard Lawrence Madoff was born April 29, 1938, in Laurelton, Queens, to Ralph Madoff and Sylvia “Susie” Munter Madoff.

In 1963, a stock broker-dealer business run out of the family’s home — Gibraltar Securities, registered in Susie’s name — was among 48 firms cited by the SEC for failing to file reports and voluntarily shut down to avoid prosecution.

Madoff, the middle of three children, graduated from Far Rockaway High School and attended the University of Alabama for one year before transferring to Hofstra University.

After marrying Ruth, his high school sweetheart, in 1959, Madoff graduated in 1960; his college ring sold for $6,000 at an auction in 2010.

Madoff briefly attended Brooklyn Law School before using $5,000 in savings from part-time jobs as a lifeguard and sprinkler-system installer to start his finance business, which he initially ran out of father-in-law Saul Alpern’s accounting office near Manhattan’s Bryant Park.

The firm helped Madoff recruit investors, eventually steering hundreds of millions of dollars his way even after Alpern retired.

But Madoff took his marriage vows about as seriously as he did his balance sheets, engaging in a two-year affair with Sheryl Weinstein, then the CFO of the Jewish women’s charity Hadassah, who described their hotel-room trysts during the mid-1990s as “surprisingly exciting” in a memoir titled “Madoff’s Other Secret.”

Weinstein also entrusted Madoff with both Hadassah’s money and her own, with the charity later forced to give back $45 million in crooked profits and Weinstein winding up among the victims who spoke at his sentencing, where she called him a “beast” and an “equal-opportunity destroyer.”

Federal prosecutors alleged in court papers that Madoff was also involved “in a love triangle” with one of his employees, but the sordid details never emerged.

Five workers, including the unidentified lover, were convicted by a jury of conspiring with Madoff, while nine other employees and associates pleaded guilty to various charges tied to his fraud.

They included Madoff’s younger brother, Peter, who’d been the firm’s CFO and got slapped with a 10-year prison term. He was scheduled for release in August 2020.

Madoff’s older sister, Sondra Wiener, also took a major hit when his scam collapsed, losing an estimated $3 million nest egg that forced her and hubby Marvin to sell their home at the ritzy BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens.

One of their sons, Charles Wiener, was a 30-year Madoff employee who told The Post in January 2009 the fraud wiped him out and was “emotionally devastating to our entire family.”

Charles, his wife and parents were later sued by Madoff’s bankruptcy trustee for allegedly pocketing more than $1.7 million in crooked profits.

They settled for an undisclosed amount.

During the final months of his life, Madoff tried desperately to get out of prison, filing a request for clemency from President Trump that went unanswered and seeking compassionate release from the Bureau of Prisons.

When the BOP turned him down, Madoff filed another request with the judge who sentenced him, but his bid was opposed by prosecutors who said that his dying in prison would be “wholly justified” and noted that only 20 of about 520 victims who weighed in on the issue favored freeing him.

Madoff is survived by his wife, Ruth; six grandchildren; sister Sondra Wiener and brother Peter Madoff.

 

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https://nypost.com/2021/04/14/ruth-madoff-is-living-in-a-3-8m-connecticut-waterfront-home/

Ruth Madoff is living in a $3.8M waterfront home with former daughter-in-law’s family
By Doug Healey and Bruce Golding
April 14, 2021 | 3:56pm | Updated

Exterior of home of Ruth Madoff.


Ruth Madoff is finally living in style again — sharing a $3.8 million waterfront mansion in Connecticut with a former daughter-in-law’s family, The Post has learned.

Just hours after the prison death of her widely reviled husband — infamous fraudster Bernie Madoff — Ruth declined to come to the door at the sprawling, four-bedroom house in the swank Lucas Point section of Old Greenwich.​

​”She is here, but she’s not available,” said a young woman with long, dark hair who held back a large dog.

Publicly available records suggest that Ruth, 79, moved into the house in September.

Ruth, who dropped any claim to about $80 million in assets held by her and Bernie in exchange for $2.5 million in cash, moved there in 2012 ​to be closer to her grandchildren ​after briefly living in a condo in Boca Raton, Fla.

The Lucas Point house was built in 2005 and boasts nearly 4,000 feet of living space, including a double-height entry gallery, two fireplaces, a private dock and floor-to-ceiling windows with views of Greenwich Cove, according to the Zillow real estate website.

Records show it’s owned by Susan Elkin, 56, the first wife of Ruth and Bernie’s elder son, Mark, with whom she had two kids, Daniel Madoff, 29, and Kate Madoff, 26.

Mark committed suicide in 2010 by hanging himself on the second anniversary of his father’s blockbuster arrest for his record-setting, $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

“Bernie, now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit. F–-k you,” wrote Mark, 48.

In 2012, Elkin was sued for $2.4 million by the bankruptcy trustee who clawed back Bernie Madoff’s ill-gotten gains for distribution to his victims.

The case was settled for an undisclosed amount two years later.

Elkin’s husband, Richard Elkin, 56, is president of the Gotham Technologies water treatment company in Norwalk, Conn., and has served as vice president of the Lucas Point Association, records show.

Susan declined to comment when reached by phone.

 

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Bernie Madoff’s sister and her husband dead in suspected murder-suicide: cops

The sister of the late fraudster Bernie Madoff and her husband have been found dead in Florida in a suspected murder-suicide, according to a report.

nypost.com

Bernie Madoff’s sister and her husband dead in suspected murder-suicide: cops​

By
Jackie Salo


February 20, 2022 10:05am
Updated

Bernie Madoff's sister and her husband have been found dead in Florida. AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File

​

The sister of late fraudster Bernie Madoff and her husband were found dead in Florida in an apparent murder-suicide, authorities said Sunday.
Sondra Wiener, 87, and her spouse Marvin, 90 — whose lives were among those destroyed by Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme — were discovered dead from gunshot wounds in their home Thursday afternoon in Boynton Beach, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies received a call at 12:55 p.m. about the couple being unresponsive in their residence, authorities said.
“Upon arrival, deputies located an elderly female and male deceased from a gunshot wound,” the sheriff’s office said.
Detectives from the Violent Crimes Division are investigating their deaths as a murder-suicide, authorities confirmed. It wasn’t immediately clear who killed who, but the couple’s kin requested that authorities shield the name of Marvin, citing Marcy’s Law, which allows relatives to protect the names of crime victims.
Medical examiners remove the body of Mark Madoff, the son of Bernie Madoff, after he hanged himself in his New York apartment on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest, December 11, 2010.EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images
Wiener and her husband had not been spared by her brother’s financial crimes, with the couple reportedly losing $3 million when his Ponzi scheme came crashing down in 2008.
“She lost millions in this whole thing,” a source told The Post in 2009.
Before Madoff’s crimes came to light, the siblings appeared close. The Wieners had lived near his Palm Beach estate in the BallenIsles Country Club, a gated enclave home to celebrities such as Serena and Venus Williams.
Andrew Madoff died of mantle-cell lymphoma in 2014.CBS via Getty Images
But in 2009, they downsized after selling the house for $575,000, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Wiener had been among one of five relatives who received packages filled with pricey heirlooms allegedly mailed by Madoff and his wife, Ruth, on Christmas Eve 2008 — just days after the financier’s sons turned him over to authorities for defrauding his clients.
Though the sister did not work for Madoff Securities, her son Charles, 50, toiled there for decades, once serving as the director of administration.
Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.AP Photo/David Karp, File
Another of Wiener’s sons, David, confirmed in 2009 that his parents had suffered financially as a result of the Ponzi scheme.
“Yes, my family’s a victim. More so than anybody else. It’s very painful,” he told The Post.
No further details were immediately released about the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
The deadly incident at the couple’s home was first reported by Boca News Now.

see also​

Death certificate shows Bernie Madoff died of kidney disease, hypertension​

In an e-mail sent to residents in the couple’s Valencia Lakes neighborhood, a community leader confirmed the deaths.
“Let me start off by stating that as many of you have heard, we had a tragic situation on Barca Boulevard regarding the passing of Sondra and Marvin Weiner,” said the e-mail obtained by Boca News Now.“Our thoughts and condolences go out to their family. There is currently an investigation pending. All I can say is at this time there is no security or safety threat to anyone in the community.”
Bernie Madoff, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to running the Ponzi scheme, died in federal lockup in Butner, NC, in April as he was serving a 150-year sentence. He was 82.
His devastating financial crimes have been linked to a number of tragedies.
His elder son, Mark, hanged himself on the second anniversary of the fraudster’s 2008 arrest and left behind a bitter note.
“Bernie, now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit. F–-k you,” wrote Mark, 48.
The convict’s younger son Andrew also blamed their dad for his recurrence of the rare cancer mantle-cell lymphoma, which killed him in 2014. Andrew also was 48 when he died.
“One way to think of this is the scandal and everything that happened killed my brother very quickly. And it’s killing me slowly,” Andrew told People magazine before his death.
Madoff’s ripoff was also tied to the suicides of three investors, including a hedge-fund executive, Charles Murphy, 56, who jumped his death from the luxury Sofitel New York Hotel in 2017 after his firm invested $7 billion with the financier.

 

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https://nypost.com/2022/04/27/bernie-madoffs-montauk-pad-returns-for-sale-with-price-hike/

No one wants to buy fraudster Bernie Madoff’s Hamptons estate
By Mary K. Jacob
April 27, 2022 2:19pm
Updated

The late Bernie Madoff’s longtime Hamptons home has returned for sale, listing for $22.5 million.

That comes at a bit of a price hike, considering the owner, Vornado Realty Trust honcho Steven Roth, has been trying to sell the three-bedroom, three-bathroom estate in Montauk over the past four years.

The home first hit the market in April 2018 for $21 million, but with no offers, the price was reduced to $19.9 million. By 2020, it re-listed for $17.9 million. The home remained at that price point for years — gliding on and off the market. But, it appears, Roth is intent on scoring a profit on the home.

However, it doesn’t seem like anyone is willing to bite.

Roth — the chairman of the largest commercial landlord in New York City — and his wife, Daryl, a Broadway producer, purchased the 3,000-square-foot estate from US Marshals in 2009 for $9.41 million, records show.

At the time, the home garnered four bids with Roth, 81, willing to purchase the estate for more than its $8.75 million asking price.

Bernie Madoff’s (inset) longtime Hamptons home is back for sale, this time with a notable price hike. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group; Getty Images The property measures 3,000 square feet. The estate stands on nearly 1.5 acres. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group


The government had seized Madoff’s home as part of the effort to repay the victims of his Ponzi scheme — considered the largest in history, which defrauded his clients of almost $65 billion.

Madoff, and his wife Ruth Madoff, purchased the land for $250,000 in the early 1980s, records show. They later built the home, adding about 0.1 acre of waterfront for $20,000.

Tim Davis of the Corcoran Group has the listing.

“Their heart and soul went into this project of purchasing and developing the property,” Davis told Mansion Global. “There is an emotional attachment there.”

The great room with a high arched ceiling and a stone fireplace. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group

A sitting area. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group The kitchen and breakfast space. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group


The oceanfront property, sequestered on nearly 1.5 acres, features 180 feet of Atlantic views, according to the listing.

“A stunning Montauk hideaway awaits its new chapter at the end of a long-gated drive,” the listing says.

Architect and designer Thierry Despont lent his touch to the interior features.

Features include barrel-vaulted ceilings and high windows in the living room, which is set around a natural stone fireplace.

One of three bedrooms. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
The primary bathroom. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
The terrace with oceanfront views. Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
The pool and deck.Courtesy of The Corcoran Group


The kitchen has floor-to-ceiling windows to allow abundant natural light. A primary bedroom has sliding glass doors that open out onto an outdoor deck, as well as a bathroom with dual sinks.

“[The Roths] have had some moving parts in their lives, including during COVID,” Davis added. “The intent has always been to sell.”

The Post reached out to Roth for comment.

On April 14, 2021, Madoff died of natural causes at the age 82 in federal custody in North Carolina.

 

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https://nypost.com/2022/09/28/feds-dole-out-another-370m-to-bernie-madoff-victims-total-now-4b/

Feds dole out another $370M to Bernie Madoff victims — total now $4B
By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
September 28, 2022 4:49pm
Updated

The Justice Department has doled out more than $370 million to victims of infamous Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff— bringing the total compensation paid out to former clients to more than $4 billion.

“The criminal division is proud to continue providing compensation to victims through the largest remission process the department has overseen,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite said in a statement Wednesday.

“The billions distributed worldwide is a testament to the department’s sustained efforts to ensure justice for the victims of Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud,” Polite said.

Madoff, who died in federal prison last year at 82, was jailed in 2009 for pulling off one of the most notorious Ponzi schemes in history, bilking tens of thousands of investors out of billions of dollars through Bernie L. Madoff Investment Securities.

The scam, which started in 1960, spanned 125 countries and 49 states, with more than 40,000 victims, including Madoff’s own friends and relatives, federal prosecutors said.

Bernard Madoff died in 2021; the Ponzi scheme extraordinaire was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009. Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images


Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 counts of varying federal financial crimes.

The DOJ has been liquidating Madoff assets and distributing the proceeds to the victims, with about 88% of the money now returned to his duped clients. The feds have made more than a half dozen payments to help victims recoup their losses.

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A pair of black velveteen slippers embroidered with "BLM" belonging to Bernard Madoff, founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, are displayed prior to an auction in New York in 2010. Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Antique golf clubs and other decorative items belonging to Bernard Madoff. Eliot J. Schechter/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A Rolex 18-carat gold chronograph, model 3525 "prisoner watch" is displayed during a media preview of the personal belongings of Bernard Madoff. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images


“The damage perpetrated by Bernard Madoff in history’s largest Ponzi scheme reverberates around the world, devastating thousands of victims,” Luis Quesada, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, said in a statement Wednesday.

 

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Madoff victims paid another $158M by compensation fund, bringing total to $4.22B: feds

Another $158 million has been doled out to victims of Bernie Madoff, the feds announced Monday — bringing the total payout to a whopping $4.22 billion.

nypost.com

Madoff victims paid another $158M by compensation fund, bringing total to $4.22B: feds​

By
Social Links for Priscilla DeGregory



Published Dec. 11, 2023, 2:22 p.m. ET






Another $158 million has been paid out to victims of global swindler Bernie Madoff, the feds announced Monday — bringing the total to a whopping $4.22 billion.
A compensation fund to repay victims of Madoff — who died in 2021 while serving out a 150-year prison term — has begun distributing its ninth installment to 24,875 people worldwide, according to the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office.
The Madoff Victim Fund was set up a decade ago after the scam king — who became one of the world’s most hated figures when his $65 billion Ponzi scheme was revealed — copped to his crimes.
Including the new payout, the fund will have disbursed a total of $4.22 billion to 40,843 victims, who span 127 countries and 49 US states — helping them to recoup 91% of their losses, the feds said.
Fund special master Richard C. Breeden lauded the progress made in making victims whole again and said the fund is aiming to make a final payout by the end of 2024, according to an update report released this month.




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Another $158 million has been paid out to people swindled by Bernie Madoff, bringing the total to $4.22 billion, the feds announced. Getty Images
“When we started, no one knew how many Madoff victims existed, where they were, or the amount of their losses,” Breeden said. “Now, in our tenth anniversary year, we have finally pushed past the 90% payout milestone.”


“Today’s announcement is a realization of our dreams of what we could do to help so many people with shattered lives,” the special master said. “At [Madoff Victim Fund], we have traced the contours of the fraud, calculated the stolen cash and then put it back directly into the hands of the people from whom it was stolen.”


The compensation money not only comes from the funds Madoff was forced to cough up at his sentencing, but also from his co-conspirators.


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Madoff died in jail in 2021 serving a 150-year prison term after pleading guilty to 11 financial crimes. Getty Images
Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 financial crimes in 2009 and was sentenced that year.


He died in a federal lockup in North Carolina on April 14, 2021, at 82.


Madoff’s massive stock fraud ripped off not only investors but also his friends and family through a shady wealth management company he started in 1960.


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A compensation fund — which has been running for nearly a decade — has begun making the ninth installment to victims. Chad Rachman/N.Y.Post


He made a failed bid for compassionate release in the summer of 2020 on the grounds that he only had months left to live due to kidney disease.


Roughly 500 victims at the time wrote letters to the judge saying that Madoff should die behind bars.


“The financial toll on those who entrusted their money with Madoff was devastating, and this Office’s unprecedented efforts to return money to Madoff’s victims has now resulted in clawbacks of 91% of fraud losses to their rightful owners,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Monday.