Bernie Madoff Ponzi-scheme fraudster

Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff (April 29, 1938 – April 14, 2021) was an American financier who executed the largest Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding thousands of investors out of tens of billions of dollars over the course of at least 17 years, and possibly longer. He was also a pioneer in electronic trading and chairman of the NASDAQ (Topic) in the early 1990s.

(1) Bernie Madoff was a money manager responsible for one of the largest financial frauds to date.

(2) Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, which likely ran for decades, defrauded thousands of investors out of tens of billions of dollars.

(3) Investors put their trust in Madoff because he created a front of respectability, his returns were high but not outlandish, and he claimed to use a legitimate strategy.

(4) In 2009 Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and forced to forfeit $170 billion - his pseudo-release date is January 4, 2137.

(5) As of December 2018, the Madoff Victims Fund had distributed more than $2.7 billion to 37,011 victimized investors in the U.S. and around the world.

In 2009, at age 71, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felony counts, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, perjury, and money laundering. The Ponzi scheme became a potent symbol of the culture of greed and dishonesty that, to critics, pervaded Wall Street in the run-up to the financial crisis. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $170 billion in assets, but no other prominent Wall Street figures faced legal ramifications in the wake of the crisis.

Madoff has been the subject of numerous articles, books, movies, and an ABC biopic miniseries.