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Bernie Madoff died in prison after carrying out the largest Ponzi scheme in history — here’s how it worked
12 years ago, Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes and the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
By Stephanie Yang and Grace Kay
On Wednesday, Bernie Madoff died in federal prison, according to a report from the Associated Press. The 82-year-old, who is believed to have died from natural causes, carried out one of the biggest fraudulent schemes in US history before he landed in prison.
In 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for running a pyramid scheme so all-encompassing that even today, only a few of his victims have regained all of their losses. As of 2020, the US Department of Justice had returned about $3.2 billion to individuals that had been conned by Madoff.
As a well-respected financier, Madoff convinced thousands of investors to hand over their savings, falsely promising consistent profits in return. He was caught in December 2008 and charged with 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury, and theft.
Here’s how Madoff conned his investors out of $65 billion and went undetected for decades.
