The Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced that the Madoff Victim Fund is distributing 131.4 million U.S. dollars from forfeited assets to 23,408 individuals globally in its tenth and final round of payments.
Bernard Madoff, the former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange and once considered a financial guru, orchestrated a massive Ponzi scheme, marking one of the largest frauds in American financial history. He passed away in prison at the age of 82 in 2021 while serving a 150-year sentence.
In total, 40,930 victims of Madoff’s fraudulent scheme have received compensation across 127 countries, recovering approximately 93.71% of their losses. Most of these victims were small investors, each losing less than 500,000 dollars. The affected parties include 38,860 individuals and various schools, charities, and pension funds.
The Madoff Victim Fund was primarily established through settlements between the Justice Department and Madoff’s former bank, JP Morgan Chase, as well as between the liquidator of Madoff’s firm and the estate of Jeffry Picower, the largest beneficiary of Madoff’s scheme.
The 2008 financial crisis led to the scheme’s collapse, leaving countless victims without their savings. In December 2008, as concerns about the looming crisis grew and investors began to demand their funds, Madoff held a family meeting at his Manhattan residence, where he revealed to his sons that the family business was built on “one big lie.” The Ponzi scheme involved using funds from new investors to pay returns to earlier investors rather than making legitimate investments.
