Bernie Madoff, a Wall Street financial disgrace after admitting to one of US financial history’s greatest frauds, died in jail at age 82.
The Prison Bureau announced his death.
Mr. Madoff served a 150-year term after pleading guilty in 2009 to running a Ponzi scheme, paying investors money from new customers rather than real income.
It crashed during the Financial Crisis of 2008.
“Bernie lived with guilt and remorse for his crimes until his death,” Brandon Sample said in a statement.
“While Bernie’s crimes have come to define who he was, he was also a father and husband. He was gentle and intelligent. Bernie wasn’t fine. But there’s no guy. “
Madoff: Outstanding returns
Mr. Madoff, the son of New York-born European immigrants, founded his eponymous Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities in 1960.
The firm became one of the biggest market-makers, matching buyers and stock sellers, and Mr. Madoff served as Nasdaq stock exchange chairman.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prosecuted the company eight times because of extraordinary returns.
But it was the global recession that triggered Mr. Madoff‘s downfall as investors, hit by the slump, tried to withdraw around $7bn from his funds and couldn’t find the money to cover it.
His sons, who went to the authorities, confessed to the issue.
Among those duped were actor Kevin Bacon, baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, and film director Steven Spielberg’s charitable foundation, Wunderkinder.
UK banks were also among those who lost money, claiming HSBC Holdings had exposure of about $1bn. Other corporate victims were Scotland’s Royal Bank and Man Group, and Japan’s Nomura Holdings.
But not only the wealthy and big corporations were victims of fraud.
‘We thought he was God’
Teachers, fishermen, mechanics and many others also lost income.
“We thought he was God. We trusted everything in his hands, “Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel said in 2009, whose foundation lost $15.2 million.
In court, Mr. Madoff said he thought it would only be for a short period when he launched the scheme in the 1990s.
“I can’t properly express how sorry I’m for what I’ve done,” he said in March 2009, pleading guilty.
“I realised my arrest would eventually come.”
The scheme involved an estimated $65bn, a sum that included profits from Mr. Madoff‘s clients thought they had made due to false accounts.
Of the cash losses of over $17bn, over $14bn has been recovered.
Mr. Madoff sought an early release from prison last year, citing health issues, including kidney failure. He said in a Washington Post interview he had “made a horrible mistake.”
“Terminally ill,” he said. “My form of illness isn’t cured. You know, I’ve served. I’ve already served 11 years and, very honest, I’ve suffered. “
Judge Denny Chin refused Mr. Madoff‘s appeal, acknowledging that many people were still suffering from financial losses.
“I also conclude that Mr. Madoff was never really remorseful and that he was just sorry that his world had collapsed around him,” he wrote.
At least two investors committed suicide after their losses. His son Mark also killed himself on his father’s second anniversary. His other son, Andrew, died in 2014.
Mr. Madoff survives his partner, Ruth Madoff, who said she was unaware of the scheme and never sued. Prosecutors let her retain $2.5m from the couple’s $825m fortune.
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