BY Wasilat Azeez
Bernie Madoff, an American investment advisor and convicted Ponzi scheme fraudster, is dead.
The 82-year-old died on Wednesday at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, while serving a prison term of 150 years.
The United States Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed Madoff’s death, adding that the cause of death needed to be determined by a medical examiner.
In Febraury 2020, Madoff said he was dying from terminal kidney disease and asked for early release from prison on compassionate grounds — the plea was declined.
He is considered as the mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in world history for defrauding tens of thousands of people around the world as much as $65 billion.
Prior to his downfall, he was the founder and chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, a well- respected firm on Wall Street. He also served as non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market.
Madoff’s fraud was revealed during the financial crisis in 2008 when he was unable to satisfy growing client demands to withdraw their investments, and many lost their savings or were unable to retire.
He confessed his crime to his two sons who promptly reported him to federal authorities.
On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, making false statements, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and making false filings with the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC).
Tendering an apology to his victims, Madoff had said: “I have left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren. This was something I will live in for the rest of my life. I’m sorry.”
At the time of his death, he had close to 138 years remaining on his sentence.
As of December 2020, the Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) has disbursed almost $3.2 billion to nearly 37,000 victims worldwide, according to the U.S Department of Justice.
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