It’s been more than 15 years since federal authorities put an end to Bernie Madoff’s massive and destructive Ponzi scheme but the Justice Department is only now distributing final compensation payments to victims.
The DOJ announced Monday that it began distributing its tenth and final payments of forfeited funds to 40,930 victims of Madoff’s scheme, the largest known Ponzi scheme to date.
The final payments, a total of $131.4 million, will bring the total distribution payments to over $4.3 billion. This means victims will have recovered approximately 93.7 percent of their fraud losses.
“The unprecedented scope and complexity of the Madoff remission process shows the power of forfeiture to recover assets and to compensate victims,” said Brent Wible, head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department.
The final payments arrive just weeks after the 16th anniversary of Madoff’s arrest. The disgraced financier was turned over to federal authorities by his sons, who were also employed with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS).
Madoff pled guilty in 2009 to 11 felonies, and admitted he used his wealth management business to create a massive Ponzi scheme which enriched himself, his family and others. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years, and died in prison in 2021.
Madoff used his position to steal billions from his clients – some of whom were high-profile individuals, such as actor Kevin Bacon, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, former broadcaster Larry King, and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel.
The more than 40,000 victims spanned across 127 countries.
Over the last 16 years, federal authorities, through the Madoff Victim Fund, have been able to seize assets from those connected to the scheme to pay back victims.
Much of the compensation comes from the $2.2 billion civil forfeiture recovery from Jeffry Picower, an investor and the largest beneficiary of the Madoff scheme. Picower died in 2009.
Another $1.7 billion was collected as part of a deal struck with JPMorgan Chase Bank. Remaining funds have been collected from civil forfeiture action against investor Carl Shapiro and his family, as well as from Madoff and his family.
