As this is the 10th and final round of distribution by the Madoff Victim Fund, established by the U.S. Department of Justice, it has begun giving out $131.4 million to more than 23,000 victims spread across the globe who are caught in the infamous Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff, bringing the total amount to be recovered to $4.3 billion.
This payout amounts to almost 94% of confirmed losses and ends a 16-year campaign to bring perpetrators to justice over the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme. James Dennehy of the FBI described this distribution as “an unprecedented conclusion of victim compensation.”
Bernard Madoff, once a revered Wall Street financier, was convicted in 2009 of defrauding thousands of investors through a fraudulent investment advisory business he founded in 1960. Madoff’s scheme spanned four decades, misusing funds from new investors to pay returns to earlier ones, without generating actual profits.
It was when the clients tried to withdraw approximately $7 billion when his investment firm collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis that Madoff went bankrupt. This scandal showed losses initially considered at about $65 billion before removing fictitious profits.
The MVF, run by former SEC Chairman Richard C. Breeden, has recovered billions of dollars through forfeitures of various types, including $2.2 billion from the estate of investor Jeffry Picower and $1.7 billion from JPMorgan Chase under a deferred prosecution agreement.
Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died serving his sentence in 2021. Though the fraud scale is huge, recovery efforts from the MVF have brought huge relief for those who have lost because of this scheme to many individuals, charities, and businesses.
The Department of Justice mentioned that it had done so concerning forfeiture programs aimed at large-scale financial crimes and restored the financial system’s integrity.
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