Bernie Madoff where is he now. Bernard Lawrence Madoff is

Scam of the century. The biggest scam in history. Bernard Lawrence Madoff is the master of the pyramid scheme. Such headlines in American newspapers, magazines and television news accompanied the investigation and trial of the largest financial fraud case in the history of the United States, and possibly the world.

The name of the American financier Bernard Madoff seems to have become a household name. He managed to deceive millions of citizens of the United States, including the very wealthy and influential. And the amount of damage from his scam is estimated by some experts at 50 billion dollars.

By the time of his arrest in December 2008, Madoff had earned a reputation as one of Wall Street's most powerful and successful financiers. Bernie, as his acquaintances and journalists called him, was considered one of the founding fathers of the modern financial market, Alexandra Lozova, asset manager at TNO Capital, says:

"The key success of the scheme that Bernard Madoff built was his reputation. The man had an excellent education. More than 50 years ago he organized his own investment company, which was registered on Wall Street, had connections with the business elite and the richest people in the United States "The whole style of his life showed this approach: I managed to make money for myself, I can make money for you. This was the principle of his success. It was with this that he "took" investors and attracted money to his fund. "

MMM: mountains of samovar goldIn the early nineties of the twentieth century, financial organizations began to appear in abundance, which attracted deposits from citizens at high interest rates. In fact, many of them turned out to be financial pyramid schemes. Among them was MMM.

The future symbol of greed, deceit and stupidity by 2008 managed to work as a trader, investment adviser, also held positions on the board of directors of one of the largest US exchanges Nasdaq and International Securities Clearing Corporation. The latter was responsible for non-cash payments between private companies and even states.

But Bernie Madoff's life's work was his own corporation, Madoff Investment Securities, an investment hedge fund. He founded it back in the 1960s of the last century with an honestly earned 5 thousand dollars. But then - with the growth of the stock market and the introduction of computer technology, the fund has become one of the leading players in the investment industry. In 2008, the company ranked 6th on Wall Street in terms of operations.

But it turned out that it was all just an appearance. A spectacularly created image that covered up a banal financial pyramid. According to the director of the department strategic analysis FBK company Igor Nikolaev, Madoff's activities were not much different from those of Sergei Mavrodi:

"The reason for the success of Madoff's company, like that of Mavrodi's, was a simple thing - people are gullible, they are not taught mistakes. They want to make money quickly and a lot. And what's the difference - well, after all, Mavrodi acted on a larger scale, millions of people were involved "And Madoff has a narrower circle of people, more acquaintances and more wealthy. But from the point of view of human motivation - both wealthy and poor - everyone has the same thing: they want to make quick money, get cheap. As a result, both there and there pyramid, and as a result, a completely logical end: it collapses, and their organizers end up in prison."

Madoff's company promised its clients 10-12% annual guaranteed income. It was believed that Madoff and his subordinates successfully play the stock market. But everything turned out to be simpler: according to the principle of a financial pyramid, payments to old customers were made at the expense of newly attracted investors. And the case was put on stream. And the fraud itself was like a family contract: Madoff hired his sons, brother and niece.

It is noteworthy that the exact amount of damage is unknown to this day. According to the most negative estimates, the total size of Bernie's financial pyramid could reach 65 billion dollars. However, most experts and government officials agree on a more modest estimate of $20 billion. Overall, between 1992 and 2008, Madoff's empire was checked at least six times, but nothing suspicious was found. However, many researchers are sure that Madoff had powerful patrons.

It is interesting that the whole fraudulent scheme was revealed almost by accident. According to the official version, in December 2008, Madoff himself confessed to his sons that all his work and the fund were “one big lie,” and that the company was working on a pyramid scheme. Peter and Mark immediately went to the FBI and "turned in" their daddy. Madoff was arrested the next day. The trial of the former financier took two years. Bernie received the maximum possible sentence - 150 years in prison. And he has no right to parole.

Prosecutors and lawyers for the victims of the fraudster did everything possible to hold his relatives accountable. Madoff's wife had to give up all luxuries, apartments, cars and bank accounts. All the money went into the compensation fund. Bernie himself is now spending his days in a cell in an ordinary prison. He even tried to organize investment courses there. But the authorities did not appreciate the idea and banned it. One of his sons - Peter - was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and the second - Mark - committed suicide in 2010.

Who is "Bernie Madoff"

Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff is an American financier who executed the largest Ponzi scheme in history, swindling thousands of investors out of tens of billions of dollars for at least 17 years and possibly longer. He was also a pioneer in electronic trading and Chairman of Nasdaq at the beginning 1990s.

More about "Bernie Madoff"

Despite claiming to generate big, sustainable results within an investment strategy called "breakdown transformation" that exists (see Invest Like Madoff - Without the Jail Time). Madoff simply deposited client funds into a single bank account, which he used to pay clients who wanted to withdraw. It funded the repayments by attracting new investors and capital, but was unable to sustain the scam when the market dropped sharply at the end of 2008. He confessed to his sons, who worked at his firm but said they were unaware of the scheme - December 10, 2008. The next day they returned him to the authorities. The fund's latest statements indicated that it had $64. 8 billion in client assets.

In 2009, at age 71, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, perjury, and money laundering. The Ponzi scheme has become a powerful symbol of the culture of greed and dishonesty that critics say pervaded Wall Street in the run-up to the financial crisis. While Madoff was sentenced to 150 years and jail and ordered to forfeit $170 million in assets, no other prominent Wall Street figure has faced legal consequences since the crisis.

Madoff has been the subject of numerous articles, books, films, and an ABC biographical miniseries. (See Investopedia's guide to watching The Wizard of Lies, HBO's Madoff.)

Early Career of Bernie Madoff

Bernie Madoff was born in Queens, New York on April 29, 1938, and began dating his future wife Ruth (née Alpern) when both were in their early teens. Speaking on the phone from prison, Madoff told journalist Steve Fishman that his father, who ran a sporting goods store, went out of business due to a steel shortage during the Korean War: "You watch it happen and you see your father you idolize, build a big business, and then lose everything.”

Fishman says Madoff was determined to achieve the "enduring success" that his father did not have, "whatever it takes", but Madoff's career had its ups and downs.

In 1960, he founded his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, at the age of 22. He first trades penny stocks with $5,000 (worth about $41,000 in 2017), he earned sprinkler installations and workers as a lifeguard. He soon convinced family friends and others to invest in him. When the Kennedy Slide jumped 20% off the market in 1962, Madoff's bets soured and his father-in-law bailed him out.

Madoff had a chip on his shoulder and was constantly reminded that he was not part of the Wall Street crowd. "We were a small firm, we were not members of the New York Stock Exchange," he told Fishman. "It was very obvious."

According to Madoff, he began to make a name for himself as a patchwork market maker: "I was happy to take crumbs," he told Fishman, presenting the example of a client who wanted to sell eight bonds; a large firm would flout this order, but Madoff would complete it.

Success came when he and his brother Peter began creating electronic trading opportunities - "artificial intelligence" in Madoff's words - that attracted a massive flow of orders and stimulated business by providing insight into market activity." I had all these major banks coming down, entertaining me," Fishman's Madoff said." It's been a head trip"

he and four other Wall Street strongholds handled half of the New York Stock Exchange's order flow. arguably, he paid for a lot of it—and by the end of the 1980s, Madoff was making about $100 million a year. He became chairman of the Nasdaq in 1990 and also served in 1991 and 1993.

Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme

It's not entirely certain when Madoff's Ponzi scheme began. He testified in court that it started in 1991, but his account manager, Frank Di Pascali, who has been with the firm since 1975, said the fraud has been going on "for as long as I can remember."

It is even less clear why Madoff followed this scheme at all: “I had more than enough money to support every lifestyle and lifestyle of my family. I didn't have to do that," he told Fishman, adding, "I don't know, I don't know why." The legal wings of the business were extremely lucrative, and Madoff could earn the respect of Wall Street's elites solely as a market maker and e-commerce pioneer. .

Madoff repeatedly suggested to Fishman that he not be entirely to blame for the fraud. "I just allowed myself to talk into something, and it's my fault," he said, without making it clear who was talking to him. I thought I could break out after a while. I thought it would be a very short period of time, but I just couldn't."

The so-called "Big Four" drew attention to their long and lucrative involvement with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Madoff's relationships with Karl Shapiro, Jeffrey Picaver, Stanley Chai, and Norma Levy date back to the 1960s and 1970s, and his scheme has mortgaged them for hundreds of millions of dollars each.

"Everyone was greedy, everyone wanted to keep going, and I just went along with it," Madoff told Fishman. He pointed out that the "Big Four" and others - a number of feeder funds are pumping client funds to him, some of them, in addition to outsourcing their client asset management, must have suspected what income he had generated or at least should have had. can you make 15 percent or 18 percent when everyone makes less money?” Madoff asked.

These seemingly super-high returns convince clients to look the other way. In fact, Madoff simply deposited his funds in an account with Chase Manhattan Bank, which merged to become JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 2000 and let him sit. By one estimate, the bank may have disbursed up to $483 million from these deposits. United States, so he was not inclined to ask as well.

When clients wanted to buy back their investments, Madoff funded payouts with new capital, which he raised through a reputation for incredible returns and courting his victims, earning their trust. Madoff also cultivated an image of exclusivity, often alienating customers initially. This model allowed about half of Madoff's investors to cash out profits. These investors had to pay into the victims' fund to compensate deceived investors who lost money.

Madoff has created a front of respectability and generosity by wooing investors through his philanthropic work. He also scammed a number of non-profits, some of them nearly destroying their funds, including the Elie Wiesel Peace Foundation and Hadassah, a global women's charity.

He used his friendship with J. Ezra Merkin, an officer at Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Synagogue, to approach the congregation. According to various accounts, Madoff cheated between $1 billion and $2 billion from his members.

Madoff's credibility to investors has been linked to a number of factors:

1. His main public portfolio seemed to stick to sound investments in blue chip stocks.

2. Its returns were high (10-20% per year), but consistent, not outlandish. As The Wall Street Journal reported in a now-famous interview with Madoff from 1992: "[Madoff] insists that returns are really nothing special, given that the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index had an average annual return of 16.3%. between November 1982 and November 1992. “I would be surprised if anyone thought that S&P compliance over 10 years was something extraordinary,” he says.

3). He claimed to use the collar strategy, also known as the broken-hit conversion. A collar is a risk-mitigation technique in which the underlying stock is protected by the purchase of an out-of-the-money option.

Financial analyst Harry Markopolos wrote in a scathing 2005 letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Madoff's stated strategy "couldn't beat a return on US Treasury accounts... If that's not a regulatory hunch, I don't know what is."

Bernie Madoff research

The SEC had been investigating Madoff and his securities firm since 1999, a fact that disappointed many after he was finally put on trial, as it was believed that most of the damage could have been prevented if the initial investigations had been rigorous enough.

Marcopos was one of the earliest informants. In 1999, he counted the day Madoff had to lie down. He filed his first SEC complaint against Madoff in 2000, but the regulator ignored him.

In his 2005 letter to the SEC, he wrote, “Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi scheme. In this case, the SEC fee fee is not paid due, in this case, because it is the right thing to do.”

Using what he called the "Mosaic Method", Markopolos noted a number of irregularities. The Madoff firm claimed to make money even when the S&P falls, which makes no mathematical sense based on what Madoff claimed he was investing. The biggest red flag, according to Markopol, was that Madoff Securities was earning "undisclosed fees" instead of the standard hedge fund fee (1% of gross plus 20% of profits).

The bottom line, Markopos concluded, was that "investors who put their money down don't know that BM is managing their money." Markos also learned that Madoff had applied for huge loans from European banks (seemingly unnecessary if Madoff's income was higher than he said).

It was only in 2005 - shortly after Madoff nearly pulled out due to a wave of redemptions - that he was asked by the regulator to provide documentation on Madoff's trading accounts. He compiled a six-page list, the SEC prepared letters to two of the listed firms, but did not send them, and it was. "The lie was simply too big to fit within the agency's limited imagination," writes Diana Henriques, author of The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust, which describes the episode.

In 2008, the SEC was taken out of sight as a result of the revelation of Madoff's fraud, as well as violations by large banks in the mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt markets.

Confessions and sentences of Bernie Madoff

In November 2008, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC reported returns from a year to 5.6%; The S&P 500 is down 39% over the same period. As the sale continued, Madoff became unable to keep up with the cascade of customer buyout requests, and on Dec. 10, according to account which he gave Fishman, Madoff confessed to his sons Mark and Andy, who worked at their father's firm." In the afternoon I told them everything, they immediately left, they went to the lawyer, the lawyer said that you should turn on your father, they went, did it, and then I didn’t see them again.”

Madoff insisted that he acted even though several of his colleagues were sent to prison. His eldest son Mark Madoff committed suicide exactly two years after his fraud was exposed. Some of Madoff's investors also killed themselves. Andy Madoff died of cancer in 2014.

Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and forced to forfeit $170 billion in 2009. His three houses and yacht were put up for auction by US Marshals. He resides at Butner Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina, where he is inmate #61727-054. (See also Bernie Madoff runs a hot chocolate monopoly at the prison.)

Consequences of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme

The paper trail of the victims' statements reveals Madoff's complexity and utter betrayal of the investors. According to the documents, the Madoff scam has been going on for more than five decades, dating back to the 1960s. His final account statements, which include millions of pages of fake transactions and shady reporting, show the firm had $47 billion in "profits."

While Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 and received a 150-year prison sentence, thousands of investors lost their savings and numerous stories detailed the tormented feelings of the aggrieved victims.

In 2012, the Madoff Sacrifice Fund was set up to help compensate those defrauded by Madoff, but the Justice Department has yet to pay out any of the roughly $4 billion in the fund.

Richard Breeden, the former chairman of the SEC, which oversees the fund, noted that the thousands of claims are coming from "indirect investors," that is, people who put money into the funds that Madoff invested during his scheme.

Since they are not direct victims, Breeden and his team have to sift through thousands and thousands of claims, only to have many of them dropped. Breeden said he bases most of his decisions on one simple rule: whether this person put more money into Madoff's funds than they took out? Breeden estimates that the number of feeder investors is 11,000 north.

According to a letter written by Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd dated September 18, 2017, 65,000 petitions have been filed from victims in 136 countries, and 35,000 of the 60,000 identified to date have been approved. Reportedly, Madoff Victims Fund payments will begin by the end of 2017.

For more information, see "How to avoid falling production on next scammer Madoff."

fraudster of the century, creator of a financial pyramid, which, according to preliminary estimates of financial experts, is the largest financial scam in history, the victims of which were not only many financial institutions, but also his friends

Personality of Bernard Madoff, his biography and stages of his fall, the Madoff pyramid scheme and the reasons for its fall, the factors that contribute to the flourishing of the Madoff scam, the arrest and imprisonment of Bernard Madoff, the victim of the Madoff pyramid scheme, the sale of Madoff's things at auction

Expand content

Collapse content

Bernard Madoff is, definition

Bernard Madoff is investor, former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, creator of the largest financial pyramid in the history of the United States (the so-called "Ponzi scheme"), the victims of which were not only banks and investment funds, but also many famous personalities, for committing the most unprecedented financial fraud, sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Bernard Madoff is manager of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and former chairman of the board of directors of the NASDAQ stock exchange, who is now serving a 150-year sentence for defrauding his fund's investors of $65 billion in a pyramid scheme.

Scam of the century

Bernard Madoff is American businessman, former chairman of the board of directors of the NASDAQ stock exchange, whose reputation as a brilliant financier and specialist in the stock exchange was, which he enjoyed until 2008.

Bernard Madoff is founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, which he headed until December 11, 2008, when he was accused of creating perhaps the largest pyramid scheme in history.

Bernard Madoff is the creator of the largest financial pyramid, according to experts, is the largest financial scam in history, since the number of victims is from one to three million people and several hundred financial institutions, the damage is estimated at about 64.8 billion dollars.

Bernard Madoff is American broker, financier and investment specialist. He is best known as the organizer of the largest financial fraud in the history of the United States.

Bernard Madoff is a legend among scammers, since the amount of embezzlement of which he is accused is equal to $50 billion ($64.8 billion according to other sources). According to some experts, the financial pyramid of Bernard Madoff is the largest financial scam in history.

Bernard Madoff is an unscrupulous swindler who went down in US history as the creator of the largest financial pyramid.

Bernard Madoff is a swindler of the century, former chairman of the board of directors of the NASDAQ stock exchange, who is now serving a 150-year sentence.

Bernard Madoff is a businessman whose entire business from the moment of its inception to the present has been an absolutely closed and absolutely racial channel for investment.

Biography of Bernard Madoff

Education of Bernard Madoff

In 1956 he graduated from the prestigious Far Rockaway School, where he was not considered an outstanding student. Enjoyed swimming.

In 1960, he graduated from Hofstra College in New York with a bachelor's degree in political science. During his studies, he worked as a lifeguard on the beach and a garden irrigation installer, and managed to save $5,000 from this.

Founding of Investment Securities LLC

With the money earned during his studies, Bernard Madoff founded his company "Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC" in 1960. Initially, this company was engaged in small-scale stock trading - its entire capital was earned by Madoff as a lifeguard and assembler of irrigation systems 5000 dollars.

Bernard later borrowed another $50,000 from his father-in-law. Father-in-law greatly helped the Madoff cause - primarily with connections and recommendations. The company was doing well; Bernard experimented with new approaches and solutions - for example, he became the first well-known broker to accept payments from dealers for the right to execute certain customer orders.

After 10 years, he attracted to his business:

His brother Peter;

And later nephews Roger and Shanu;

Son of Mark;

And son Andrew.

Madoff's family held leadership positions in the largest securities market organization, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Participation in the creation of the NASDAQ stock exchange

Madoff took part in the creation of the American stock exchange NASDAQ, which was engaged in the purchase and sale of securities for the benefit of investors.

Madoff Investment Securities was one of the top 25 bidders on the exchange, its founder has been called a Wall Street pillar and a pioneer of electronic trading on the exchange, he was one of the first in New York to fully computerize his firm's workflow.

Madoff served on the board of directors of Nasdaq and served as its chairman in the early 1990s.

In addition, Madoff was the chairman of the board of directors of Madoff Securities International, a hedge fund founded in 1983 and headquartered in London.

Also in 1985, he was one of the founders and a member of the board of directors of the International Securities Clearing Corporation, which was engaged in financial clearing, cashless payments between companies and states.

Madoff's charitable work

Madoff has been known for his philanthropic work: since the death of his nephew Roger from leukemia in 2006, he has regularly donated to cancer and diabetes research. Together with his wife, he founded the Madoff Family Foundation, which donated millions of dollars to theaters, museums, educational institutions and Jewish charities.

In addition, Madoff has served as Treasurer of the Board of Attorneys at the Yeshiva University School of Business and a member of the Board of Attorneys at Hofstra University. In addition, Madoff made donations to election campaigns. American politicians mostly members of the Democratic Party.

Stages of the fall of Bernard Madoff

On December 10, Madoff allegedly told his sons that his $50 billion investment business was "one big lie";

December 11 arrested by FBI agents on suspicion of securities fraud; released on $10 million bail;

On December 15, a federal judge ordered the liquidation of his company's operations in the United States;

On December 18, French hedge fund manager René-Thierry Magon de la Villaché committed suicide due to the losses he suffered as a result of Madoff's activities.

On January 9, the court canceled the bail when it became known that Madoff had shipped jewelry and other valuables to family members and friends, thus violating a court order to freeze his assets;

February 10 signed an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, pledging never to work in the financial sector;

On February 20, the Liquidation Commission found no evidence of any investment made by his firm in the last 13 years;

On March 3, Madoff relinquished the rights to the investment business, corporate art, and entertainment tickets;

On March 12, he pleaded guilty to 11 counts, including securities fraud and money laundering;

Confession of one's guilt

On March 16, authorities seize $69 million in assets held in the name of his wife, Ruth Madoff; she was subsequently left with $2.5 million;

Five former employees of the creator of the pyramid scheme Bernard Madoff found guilty of fraud;

Madoff employees found guilty

On June 16, in letters to the Chief Justice, more than 100 former clients talked about how the Madoff pyramid ruined their lives;

150 years in prison

Judgment for Madoff

In 2008, he was accused of creating perhaps the largest pyramid scheme in history. Madoff made a confession to all 11 counts. We are talking about money laundering, perjury, fraud and some other violations of the law.

A district court in New York ruled that more than $170 billion should be confiscated from the founder of the largest financial pyramid, Bernard Madoff. $ 170 billion is the amount of funds that, according to prosecutors, could be involved in the financial pyramid and the right to confiscate which is actually received by the victims of the scam. The amount is not tied to investors' losses from Madoff's actions.

The damage from Madoff's actions was estimated at a much smaller amount - $ 50 billion, but so far there have been only about 1,341 investors who have lost a total of $ 13 billion. By court order, Madoff will have all his property confiscated, including several houses, yachts, cars and money in bank accounts. Madoff's wife will lose $ 80 million, the right to which she disputed. As clarified by CNN, of these 80 million, about 22 million is the total cost of three properties: an apartment in Manhattan and two houses.

Madoff's disease while incarcerated

In December 2013, Bernie Madoff suffered a heart attack, and at the end of January 2014 it became known that Madoff was diagnosed with kidney cancer. The US Federal Bureau of Prisons (Federal Bureau of Prisons) denied the report that Sentenced to 150 years in prison, Bernard Madoff suffers from cancer and is close to death.

Bernard Madoff family

Bernard Madoff's father was a plumber and broker Ralph Madoff, Madoff's mother was Sylvia.

In addition to Bernard, the son Peter and daughter Sondra grew up in the family.

Peter Madoff

Peter Madoff worked for his older brother Bernard Madoff's Madoff Investment Securities and held a senior position in Corporate Governance and Compliance. He was arrested on June 29th. This was reported by Reuters, citing the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The arrest, according to Agence France-Presse, was made in the Manhattan office of lawyer Peter Madoff at seven in the morning local time, even before the start of the court hearing.

The day before it became known that Peter Madoff agreed to plead guilty to fraud, forgery of documents and falsification of financial statements. In exchange, the maximum prison sentence for a defendant was reduced to ten years. Also, Madoff's brother agreed to turn over all his property to pay fines.

Peter Madoff pleaded guilty to fraud on Friday

Bernard Madoff's wife - Ruth

Madoff is married, his wife's name is Ruth. Together they entered the influential Jewish circles of New York and Florida. At the end of July 2009, a $45 million lawsuit was filed against Ruth: she was accused of illegally obtaining funds, as well as their subsequent spending, and demanded that this money be returned to deceived depositors.

The wife of entrepreneur Bernard Madoff, convicted of fraud, may file for divorce. The publication refers to the opinion of Diana Henriques (Diana Henriques), the author of one of the biographies of Madoff. According to Henriques, Ruth Madoff has not seen her husband since December 2010, when their son Mark committed suicide.

The reason for the divorce for 70-year-old Ruth Madoff, according to Henriques, may be her desire to maintain a relationship with their other son, Andrew. According to The Daily Mail, the sons turned their backs on Ruth after her refusal to break off relations with Madoff when it was revealed that he had built a grand pyramid scheme.

The couple have been married for 52 years.

Sons of Bernard Madoff

The sons of Bernard Madoff, Mark and Andrew, were among the defendants in the case of a financial pyramid, for the creation of which the financier was sentenced to 150 years in prison, but the brothers were not charged. In addition, the sons of Bernard Madoff were sued by a former employee of Madoff Investment Securities, who wants a refund of the bonus he did not receive.

Andrew Madoff

Andrew Madoff, son of entrepreneur Bernard Madoff, said his father used him almost like a "human shield" to cover up his own illegal operations. According to him, he did not know what his father was doing, but it might seem strange that he did not discuss a plan to transfer his business by inheritance.

Andrew Madoff had worked for his father's company since 1986, right after graduating from college, but, in his own words, did not know that the company was based on fraud.

Mark Madoff

In December 2010, a collection company filed a lawsuit against Madoff's son, Mark, a few days later, on December 12, he committed suicide.

Three days earlier, Mark Madoff had learned that he, his children (a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son), and his younger brother, Andrew, were defendants in three lawsuits. The lawsuits were filed by Irving Picard, the liquidator of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), to seek $80 million in damages to investors affected by Madoff Sr.'s fraudulent scheme.

Mark Madoff was named in the lawsuit as the head of the London division of BLMIS, but no criminal charges were filed against him.

Personal life of Bernard Madoff

Madoff lived "in grand style":

He was a member of several elite ski and golf clubs;

Owned an apartment in Manhattan;

Houses in Palm Beach and in France.

In the Bahamas, he had his own yacht.

Arrest and imprisonment of Bernard Madoff

At 8:30 am on December 11, 2008, two FBI agents arrived at Madoff's Manhattan apartment. “We came to find out if there is a legitimate explanation for what happened,” one of the agents turned to the financier. “There is no legal explanation,” Madoff replied, adding that he was “paying off investors with money that he did not have” and is ready to go to jail for this. So the FBI statement to the court describes the end of the brilliant career of a well-known financier.

Bernard Madoff case

Madoff's name first surfaced in the context of a fraud story in 1992, when the SEC received a complaint from two clients of the Avellino & Bienes investment company. Eventually Madoff returned the clients their money and the case was closed.

In 2004, Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, one of the SEC Complaints and Investigations lawyers, told her superiors that there were a number of frankly questionable points in the Madoff cases. The authorities, however, demanded that the investigation be stopped, and that the materials already discovered be handed over to them.

One of the leaders, Eric Swanson, met Shana Madoff, Bernard's niece, back in 2003; They got engaged in 2006 and married in 2007.

However, this did not help Madoff himself much. Suspicions against him began to be voiced back in 1999 - then financial analyst Harry Markopolos (Harry Markopolos) said that neither legally nor mathematically the profits declared by Bernard were simply impossible. The SEC ignored these statements; however, the largest players in the derivatives market preferred not to contact Madoff - his reports really looked suspiciously good. Nor did the largest Wall Street players invest in Bernard's companies.

Bernard Madoff was only charged with securities fraud on December 11, 2008. Madoff posted $10 million bail and remained under 24/7 surveillance for some time. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to violating 11 federal laws.

Bernard did not make a deal with the government, although this could have reduced his term; there is reason to believe that Madoff simply did not want to hand over his accomplices and assistants. In his confession, Bernard explained that he started cheating in 1991; the company did not make any investments in it - in fact, Madoff created a financial pyramid according to the classic Ponzi scheme. Bernard deposited the funds received into a personal bank account; from there, if necessary, he withdrew money to pay dividends. Madoff stated that he planned to eventually switch to normal investment activity, but never managed; Bernard knew about the inevitable collapse of his enterprise, but he was no longer able to change something.

On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison; lawyers initially asked for a much more modest term - 7-12 years - emphasizing the respectable age of the defendant.

150 years in prison for a financial pyramid

Judge Denny Chin, reading the verdict, noted that this decision of the court is largely symbolic, it reflects "the duration and exorbitant scale of the scam", this is a fair retribution that will help in the prevention of such crimes.

At the same time, the judge expressed surprise that no one supported Madoff. According to him, the court did not receive a single letter in defense of the swindler, even from his wife Ruth and sons Andrew and Mark.

But the judge ignored the petition of lawyer Ira Sorkin to sentence the ex-financier to 12 years, and the preliminary conclusion of the US probation service, which recommended that he be sent to prison for 50 years.

Several dozen victims of the scam were present in the courtroom, who greeted the verdict with applause. Madoff, dressed in a gray suit, white shirt and black tie (as is customary for funerals), remained silent.

"I hope that he will live long and that the prison cell will become his coffin," said Michael Schwartz, whose mentally retarded brother was left without money because of Madoff's scams. Cheryl Weinstein, whose relatives personally knew the perpetrator, called him "a monster living among people." And Miriam Zigman told how, left without money, she was forced to receive government food stamps and dig through the garbage cans of stores.

The fraudster silently listened to the testimonies of the nine victims of his scam. Then he turned to his victims and said: "I live in torment, knowing what pain and what suffering I caused. I have no excuse for my behavior. I do not ask for your forgiveness." In the last word, Madoff tried to deflect suspicion from his wife and children. He stated that they were not aware of his crimes, that for decades he had lied to them.

After the judge finished the 90-minute reading of the verdict, Ruth Madoff, the wife of the false investor, spoke for the first time in six months. She said that her husband's actions cause her shame and indignation, that since December, when he repented of his crimes, two thoughts have been haunting her. "The first is an unimaginable number of people who have lost all their money and are psychologically broken. The second is that life has come to an end with a man whom I have known for 50 years," she said.

The U.S. Justice Department said the investigation into the scam was ongoing and promised that anyone who assisted Madoff in any way in committing the crimes would be punished. Bernard Madoff has 10 days to appeal.

Whatever it was, the machine of justice spun very, very quickly. On March 12, Bernard Madoff fully pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan. The New York court immediately appointed an interim fund manager, Irving Picard, who began to seek and return the fund's funds to pay depositors around the world.

The money in the accounts and proceeds from the sale of Madoff's property gathered about 1 billion. Not only yachts and real estate were sold, but even his subscriptions to baseball games. Today, Ruth Madoff is required to report to the authorities for any spending over $100.

Madoff Auction

The US government has organized a garage sale of Bernard Madoff's personal items.

The auction, according to the organizers, will collect half a million dollars - they are intended for the victims of the financial "pyramid" of Madoff, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence. In total, about 200 items will go under the hammer - from the sports jacket of the fraudster's favorite baseball team to his wristwatch, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Auction of Bernard Madoff items

According to the publication, the sale will give the public an opportunity to get to know the lifestyle of a man who is called the creator of the largest "pyramid" in American history. The authorities put up for sale 400 private property items: houses, cars, furniture, paintings, cutlery and more.

The items were seized by federal marshals during searches of Madoff's penthouse in Manhattan, as well as his vacation home on the ocean in New York State. The auction on behalf of the US government was conducted by Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers.

Its experts estimate that a blue Mets baseball jacket embroidered with the owner's name can sell for between $500 and $720.

The estimate for exercise bikes bearing the names of Bernard Madoff and his wife Ruth is $90 each.

A set of golf clubs valued at $400 was bought for $3,600.

And the price of a wooden duck exceeded the preliminary estimate by almost 80 times and amounted to $4,750.

A miniature bronze bull from 1929, symbolizing the growing market, owned by the notorious Bernard Madoff.

A Hofstra University graduate ring with the owner's initials is valued at $300.

A collection of wristwatches - more than forty items - was put up for auction.

Including 17 Rolex watches, as well as a gold Patek Philippe in 1939, for which the auction organizers asked for 55 thousand dollars,

The most expensive chronometer is considered to be the Rolex Monoblocco made in 18-carat yellow gold; at the auction, he can "pull" 75-87.5 thousand dollars, experts believe the auction house.

Among other valuable items, the publication mentions diamond earrings from the Victorian era; their price can exceed 21 thousand dollars.

The gold monogrammed slippers worn by Madoff "gone" for $6,000.

The most expensive lot was a diamond ring, for which they paid almost twice the expected amount - 550 thousand dollars.

One of the lots is a 1917 Steinway grand piano.

Furniture, tablecloths, and even the silverware from which the Madoffs ate were put up for auction. The sale of Madoff's property by Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers aroused great interest among the public.

Among other items up for auction. - a 10.5-carat diamond engagement ring, once presented by Madoff to his future wife, Ruf

The trading volume amounted to 942 thousand 650 dollars. It is assumed that the proceeds will be used to pay compensation to victims of the financial pyramid of the former chairman of the board of directors of Nasdaq.

In September, Madoff's Long Island mansion was auctioned off.

In addition, his mansion in Palm Beach is up for auction.

Penthouse in Manhattan and other real estate.

Bernard Madoff - Financier or Fraudster?

Now that Bernard Madoff has already entered the history of the United States as the creator of the largest financial pyramid, it is quite popular to call him an unscrupulous fraudster and nothing else. The reality is somewhat more complicated - Madoff's reputation as a brilliant financier and stock market specialist, which he enjoyed until 2008, was really well deserved.

In fact, it is impossible to be a stock market or financial fraud for almost half a century. Meanwhile, Madoff's financial career began in 1969, when he started almost from the bottom of the Wall Street hierarchy, founding his own brokerage company, Madoff Investment Securities. He turned out to be a highly skilled broker who soon not only made a lot of money, but also became one of the founders of the NASDAQ stock exchange, which specializes in high-tech stocks.

So, when, in addition to his brokerage company, Madoff organized an investment fund of the same name, he was entrusted with money by reputable corporate and individual clients. He was trusted by top-level specialists, believing that if Madoff promised his clients payments of 10-12% per annum (very high for american exchange interest), then a financier of this level knows what allows such interest to be paid.

Subsequently, it turned out that at a certain stage of his activity, Madoff rebuilt his investment fund on the principle of a financial pyramid: old clients were paid interest from investments from new clients, and the rest was invested in profitable, but risky securities. For quite some time, this scheme worked well - both because of the influx of new clients with investments, and because Madoff did most often successfully invest in risky securities.

The construction of the broker-dealer business and the organization of securities trading lasted for more than 40 years. Madoff Investment Securities sold stocks, bonds and other securities profitably for itself and for clients. Experts estimated the income of Madoff's business at $67 million in 2006. Net trading in 2006 brought in $72.5 million, while the company's expenses amounted to only $30 million.

At the same time, in the skyscraper where the residence of Madoff Investment Securities was located, the great schemer managed to organize, as it were, two businesses: one - legal - which is a broker-dealer company, and the second - a fraudulent one - a hedge fund, which is not limited by regulatory regulation, is not available to the general public. circle of people.

The first business was controlled by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Everything was checked:

brokerage books;

Reporting;

Income Money,

At least once every 2 years, auditors came there with checks.

In a word, the mosquito will not undermine the nose.

But on the floor below, other workers worked tirelessly in the offices. Unlike their "colleagues" brokers, they did not wear jackets, but came to work in casual clothes, so as not to catch the eye, not to stand out in the crowd. The entrance to the 17th floor (namely, where the hedge fund was concentrated) was classified and was a small inconspicuous door to the left of the elevator.

Brokers showcased the activities of Madoff's empire, and a few workers on the 17th floor made him capital. Most of the employees of the brokerage and dealer section were banned from the 17th floor.

Madoff Investment Securities was considered one of the most reliable and profitable US investment funds: it brought investors consistently high profits - about 12-13 percent per annum. Many investors were convinced that Madoff's firm was successful because of its insider information.

His clients included numerous hedge funds, banks, charities, as well as individuals, mostly celebrities. In total, in 2008, Madoff Investment Securities had $17 billion at its disposal. The influx of new customers was not hindered by the fears of some experts who pointed to the zero volatility of Madoff's firm, but audits by the Securities and Exchange Commission and auditors did not reveal significant violations in the company's activities. The firm was considered one of the leading market makers in the stock market.

What did they do on this mysterious 17th floor? Madoff adhered to the following principle of work: a private investor opens a brokerage account. But in fact, this account is not such, because it is not connected with the brokerage part of the business at all. Madoff gets access to the client's funds, but does not put them in a hedge fund, but spends part of them on his own needs, giving money to old investors for new ones. This is the scheme of the traditional "pyramid".

The scheme, known as a pyramid scheme (when new customers' money is used to pay profits to existing ones), is called a "Ponzi scheme" in the US - after Ponzi, an Italian immigrant to the US who figured out how to extract money from thin air.

The hallmark of Madoff's scam is the IQ of the victims. How could so many smart people fall for the obvious deceit and believe the implausible stories? Madoff's pyramid scheme is traditional, like that of MMM: the interest of those who brought money earlier was paid with the money of subsequent depositors. The Madoff negotiable paper organization has been operating under this scheme for at least 20 years and was considered one of the most reliable and profitable investment funds in the United States.

Madoff promised investors to invest their money in stocks, options, and other securities of "big, well-known corporations." However, the vast majority of the investors' funds thus received were used by him for "periodic redemption of shares" to other shareholders. In fact, there were no stocks in nature, although Madoff's clients regularly received fake monthly reports that testified to his company's supposedly booming investment activity.

Presumably, Madoff acted according to the so-called "Ponzi scheme", when investors' money is not invested in securities, and payments to clients are made from funds contributed by other clients. Thus, due to the constant increase in the number of customers, it is possible to maintain the rate of payment of profits.

Madoff personally spoke with all his future clients, inviting them to prestigious country clubs, and many of them refused to invest in his fund. The New York firm had a reputation for being a company whose clients could count on attentive, almost kinship-like management. The Madoff family was also active in philanthropy. All this made clients feel not just investors, but members of a closed elite club.

Money flowed to him constantly. Perhaps, if not for the financial crisis, the organization would have continued to work further, but at some point too many investors decided to withdraw their money from the fund. On December 10, 2008, Bernard Madoff met with his sons and told them that the firm he ran alone had failed and he had no funds left to pay his clients. Only $200-300 million he wanted to spend on New Year's bonuses for employees before turning himself in to the authorities. “The whole thing is one big lie, to put it simply, a giant Ponzi scheme,” he said.

The next day, Andrew and Mark reported their father's illegal activities to both the FBI and the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission. On December 11, Madoff was arrested on suspicion of embezzling $50 billion. When arrested, he stated that "there is no reasonable explanation for his behavior" and that he "gave investors money that was not really there."

This is the longest pyramid in the world, and who knows, if not for the crisis, how much longer it could have existed. As expected, in all pyramid schemes, only one person, its founder, was imprisoned, although his sons were also accused, one son, because of this, committed suicide. And the bankers, who saw that this was not an entirely honest scheme, and profited from it, naturally did not suffer.

Pyramid of Madoff

Interim funds, friends and family are another source of investment for Madoff. They received a certain percentage of the transaction by attracting other investors. By the way, it was on the 18th respectable floor that the campaign of candidates for investors took place. And then their funds were redirected to the floor below.

Factors contributing to the Madoff scam

The giant scam was made possible by four factors:

The impeccable reputation, authority and huge influence of Madoff. He raised so much money that at one time he generated up to 20% of all transactions in the US stock market! Many years ago, he was one of the first to use computers for analysis and trading, and then became one of the founders of the NASDAQ. Many people believed that no one in the world knew better than him how the stock market worked. He was an absolute authority, including in the Jewish diaspora;

Secrecy. Madoff's "hedge fund" was very good at masking its trades and publicizing its investment strategy only in general terms. Madoff asked all investors to talk as little as possible about the activities of the fund. It was precisely because of this that the weakness of his investment strategy was not obvious to everyone, although experts had long guessed about it (see the document at the link above), but could not bring Madoff to clean water due to the reason from paragraph 1;

Jewish diaspora. It was among them that Madoff was looking for new investors - these are private individuals, billionaires, and presidents of venture funds, and directors of the world's largest banks. Most of them are known to be Jews. This diaspora traditionally has a high level of trust and they are used to investing in each other's projects;

Relatively small dividends. Madoff has been paying savers an average of 12% per annum for decades. Never had any problems with interest payments. Profitability by months for 1990-2005. shown in the table. As you can see, only seven months the yield turned out to be negative. For the stock market, this is just a fantastic result.

Madoff consistently paid interest. Many investors were afraid to take the entire amount of the deposit, because they were afraid that Madoff would not accept the deposit back later. He had a queue of people who wanted to invest in his fund. He turned down so many who literally begged him to take the money. If not for the global liquidity crisis, the company would have existed for a very long time. Perhaps decades.

Reasons for the fall of Madoff's pyramid

It is quite possible that Madoff's investment fund would have functioned for quite a long time. But if the 2008 global financial crisis was out of place for anyone, it's for Bernard Madoff.

Economic crisis 2008 and its implications for the global economy

The crisis, as you know, in the first place hit the real estate market. According to the stock exchange and the banking system. Both Madoff's sources of money to pay his clients dried up almost instantly. Firstly, those who wanted to entrust their money to him simply stopped coming to his investment fund: in a situation of financial panic, everyone tried to keep the money to themselves, fearing a complete stock exchange crash. Secondly, the quotes of almost all securities fell sharply, including those in which Madoff invested. Thus, there was nothing to pay dividends to clients.

By the way, a number of economists are of the opinion that Madoff simply lost his nerve and, if he behaved more calmly, the scandal could have been avoided or, in any case, it could have been significantly delayed: simply refer to the global crisis in front of clients and temporarily stop paying interest. And Bernard Madoff in December 2008 told his sons, Mark and Andrew, that the family investment fund was completely bankrupt, which they immediately reported to the authorities.

Later it was found that almost five thousand clients lost their money - given that most of them are banks, other investment funds, which also had their own depositors, total number around 3 million people have been affected worldwide. The amount of damage turned out to be simply astronomical - Madoff's financial pyramid absorbed without a trace 65 billion dollars.

.

The tragedy of Meidof turned into a farce

The case ended on June 29, 2009. Bernard Madoff was sentenced by a New York court to 150 years in prison. The harshness of the punishment is most likely due to the exponential nature of the process, because the financier's lawyers asked for 12 years in prison for their client and expected a maximum of 20. Carlo Ponzi, mentioned above, received 5 years in prison, of which he served 11 months.

And then, according to all the laws of the genre, the tragedy began to turn into a farce. Madoff's Facebook page collapsed from the number of people who wanted to visit it. Various goods with the Madoff Investment negotiable paper logo are gaining popularity on the eBay online auction. So, for $20 on eBay you can buy T-shirts with the logo of the foundation, a picnic bag with its logo is available for $18, for about the same amount you can buy an umbrella that once belonged to an employee of the Nasdaq Composite exchange.

In August 2010, Cheryl Weinstein published Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie and Me. Cheryl served as the chief financier of the women's charity Hadassah and was one of the witnesses in the case. Their affair with Madoff, Weinstein claims, lasted more than 20 years, despite the fact that they were both married.

And Hollywood wouldn't be Hollywood if it hadn't avenged its losses on Madoff in the usual way: by making the movie Madoff: Made Off With America.

An excerpt from Madoff: Made Off With America

Madoff himself was known in prison as a hero and almost Robin Hood. “To hell with my victims - I rushed with them for 20 years”, “People just threw money at me. Some guy wanted to invest, and what would happen if I turned him down? He would have asked me why he didn't please me, ”statements like these earned Madoff respect among the prisoners at Butner Prison in North Carolina. “A hero,” says life-sentenced Robert Rosso. “He is definitely the greatest swindler in history.”

On October 13, 2009, Madoff got into his first prison fight. It is known that in prison he generally has a rather hard time - from stress alone, the swindler began to have skin problems. Other prisoners did not make it easy for Bernard to serve his term - for example, in December 2009, Madoff was taken to the hospital with a number of facial injuries (and, according to rumors, broken ribs and a punctured lung); the exact origin of these injuries is unknown, but one of the prisoners hinted at another fight. Madoff himself, however, claimed in letters home that he was being treated "like a mafia don" in prison.

Here I would like to express righteous indignation, and again “but. Six months between the first arrest and the verdict of the court, Bernard Madoff did not spend in vain - he attended a special course on survival in prison.

And today's bravado and authority in the eyes of criminals may just be a way to survive. After all, he refused to appeal for a reduction in the prison term. And during the trial, he repeatedly asked his depositors for forgiveness.

Madoff Pyramid Victims

The financial pyramid organized by Bernard Madoff, according to preliminary estimates of experts, is the largest financial scam in history. The number of victims ranges from one to three million people and several hundred financial institutions, the damage is estimated at about $64.8 billion.

After Madoff's arrest, news began to come in about who had invested their money in his pyramid scheme. Many banks, insurance and charitable funds reported possible losses. As a result of the collapse of the financial pyramid, large and medium-sized banks, financial investment companies, insurance and charitable funds of the USA, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland suffered.

Madoff scam victims

When Madoff realized the game was up, he tried to distribute his remaining $300 million as "bonuses" to his business partners and family members in December of this year, while his normal time for giving away bonuses was February. When his two sons, who held high positions in his family-based business, questioned him about such an unusual start and payouts, he reportedly acknowledged the reality.

In February 2009, a list of 13 thousand names and names of legal entities affected by the pyramid was published. True, the prosecutor's office managed to prove only Madoff's guilt in relation to 1341 victims. Their losses in total are estimated at more than $13 billion.

In February 2009, the Spanish law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo stated that it estimated that 3 million people were directly or indirectly affected by the activities of the Madoff Foundation around the world. The firm's representatives confirmed that the total loss could be estimated at $50 billion.

Bernard Madoff's pyramid victims hope to get their money back

Investment company Fairfield Greenwich Group ($7.5 billion)

Fairfield Greenwich Group, an investment company founded in 1983 in New York. The firm was one of the largest exposures to the Bernard Madoff fraud , founded by Walter Noel.

At one time, the firm operated from Noel's hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut before moving his headquarters to New York. In 1989, Noel merged his business with a small brokerage firm, partnering with Jeffrey Tucker, lawyer on the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fairfield and his Sentry fund raised funds for Madoff and acted in partnership with European banks, such as Europe's largest banks by market cap: Lost $7.5 billion.

Kingate Management ($3.5 billion)

Kingate control - this is a jedge fund headquartered in Bermuda.

In the UK, Kingate Management and Tremont Capital Management set up the Kingate Global Fund (King) as a joint venture. It was one of the largest funds, having raised $3.5 billion for Madoff since 1994. It was overseen by FIM Advisors LLP, a London-based firm. The fund lost all of its assets in a Madoff Ponzi scheme

Ascot Partners hedge fund ($1.8 billion)

The hedge fund was founded by billionaire investor, philanthropist and GMAC J. Ezra Merkin.

Ezra Merkin manages Ascot Partners LP, which was valued at $1.8 billion before the collapse of the Bernard Madoff fund. Madoff's funds depended in part on so-called "feeder funds" funneling investor deposits directly to Madoffau. Merkin at Ascot Partners was one such feeder fund, funneling "essentially all" of his assets to Madoff.

Ascot Partners lost $1.8 billion

Rye Investment Management hedge fund ($3.5 billion)

The other big loss within the US was Rye Investment Management, which lost at least $3 billion. Hedge fund subsidiary Tremont said it lost all $3 billion of its clients' money because Madoff was its only contributor.

The hedge fund lost $3.3 billion to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, more than half of its assets. When the scheme was revealed in December 2008, Brad Alford, who runs Alfa Capital Management LLC, which helps clients select hedge funds, said: "... It's staggering that people like Tremont have been doing this for so long. funds that will do due diligence. That's why they pay." In January 2009, Tremont Group closed its Rye Investment Management division.

Maxam Capital Management Fund of Funds ($289M)

Sandra Manzke, founder and chairman of the board of hedge fund fund Maxam Capital Managemen, said that in November 2008 her fund asked for a $30 million return and Madoff paid the money: "He always kept a low profile. He said: I'm a market maker and I don't want anyone to know that I manage money. He only did it for a select few."

Now Maxam has lost $280 million invested in Madoff's hedge fund and will be closed. Analyst V. Rozhankovsky noted that "for many, Madoff was a financial guru, who was treated with reverence even in the USA and could turn a blind eye to some things." As a result of fraud, the fund lost 280 million dollars.

Fairfield Sentry hedge fund ($7.3 billion)

Fairfield (now in liquidation) was the largest investor in BLMIS between 1997 and 2008. The approximate investment amount was approximately $7.2 billion. The Fairfield liquidator initiated a large number of actions against the former shareholder.

Hedge fund Fairfield Sentry Ltd lost $7.3 billion;

Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation ($8 billion)

Robert Lapin's charitable foundation has ceased to exist, having lost all its funds - $ 8 million in Madoff's financial scam. The Lapin Foundation spent hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on various projects for youth work in Israel.

R. Berg stated: "The arrest of the famous American financier Bernard Madoff had a negative impact on the financing of Jewish charitable actions aimed at countering assimilation and mixed marriages. The assets of the Robert I. Lapin Foundation, which went to pay for trips for Jewish youth to Israel ("Taglit") , vanished into Madoff's pyramid scheme."

Boston's Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, which organized trips for Jewish teenagers to Israel and invested all the money in Madoff's firm, was forced to suspend its activities.

Chase Foundation ($250 million)

On December 15, 2008, the Chase Foundation, founded in 1985 by Stanley and Pamela Chase, announced the termination of its activities, and over the years of its existence invested $ 250 million in Israel. All four employees of the fund were fired.

The Foundation donated up to 12.5 million annually to educational institutions in the country and to Jewish institutions in countries former USSR. In addition, the Foundation sponsored a number of joint projects with the Jewish Agency and "JOINT". The Chase Foundation provided major charitable assistance to Jewish organizations. In particular, the Chase Center was founded at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem with the money of the foundation, which is engaged in the development of academic Judaic studies in Russian in Israel and in the countries of the former USSR.

The 83-year-old billionaire who owns a large investment fund is suspected of violating the trust of investors who suffered losses of over a billion dollars. It is suspected that Chase knew that Madoff created a pyramid scheme, but continued to invest his clients' money in it. Following Madoff's arrest, the Chase Foundation ceased its philanthropic activities entirely.

Elie Wiesel Charitable Foundation ($15 million)

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, a charitable foundation founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, lost $15 million due to the Madoff pyramid - almost all of the foundation's funds.

Madoff Securities International ($150 million)

Madoff Securities International is American investment business arm Bernie Madoff with £100 million ($150 million) in assets and 25 employees. It was a branded trading firm that succeeded the Madoff family of investments. Each year, the money was turned over and he claimed that neither Madoff nor any of his family had made any withdrawals. Closed December 2008.

However, the chief executive, Stephen Raven, claimed that she had nothing to do with Madoff Investment Securities, her assets (about 100 million pounds) were seized.

Spanish bank Banco Santander ($2.3 billion)

Bank Santander is international bank with the largest number branches around the world (in Spain and in 31 countries abroad, including the USA, about 14,000 offices, the client base is more than 80 million). It is the largest both in Spain itself and in the whole world and Europe.

Banco Santander was one of several hundred financial institutions that suffered losses from investing in Madoff's fund. The bank's losses are estimated at 2.3 billion euros. Spanish authorities are now conducting an investigation into Banco Santander, during which they intend to find out how the bank lost funds and why this happened.

Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privee ($500 million)

Union Bancaire Prive is a success story that began in Geneva, Switzerland in 1969. Despite the extremely rapid growth of the company in the span of only one generation, Edgar de Piccioto, Chairman of the Bank, managed to maintain UBP's independence. In terms of capital adequacy ratio exceeding 22.1%, the Bank is among the private banks with the most high level capitalization.

The private Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) has agreed to reimburse defrauded depositors who suffered as a result of the machinations of Bernard Madoff up to $500 million. The corresponding agreement was reached between the bank and Irving Picard, manager of the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, reports the Associated Press.

Bank Genevalor Benbassat & Cie ($2 billion)

The Geneva-based fitness center denies the allegation that it was in prior conspiracy to scam Madoff's jedge fund.

However, they invested Madoff's funds and sold them as hedge fund funds, firms that cater to wealthy investors. As a result, they suffered losses in the amount of about $ 1 billion.

Austin Capital Management Bank ($12 million)

While many of Madoff's clients were institutional investors, some of his victims were small investors, including charities, pension funds and individuals whom he socially knew and who placed their nest eggs with him. Austin Capital Management, which has built an asset management ecosystem for banks trusted by departments, RIS, family offices, brokers, dealers to help differentiate itself and add value to a client relationship that has invested in the fund on behalf of the Massachusetts State Pension Fund Meidofa and lost $12 million.

Vank Banco Santander ($3.1 billion)

The Spanish bank Santander is offering its customers 1380,000,000 euros in compensation. The offer does not apply to institutional investors. Latin American clients approached with an offer to return their initial investment through preferred shares at a 2% interest rate, in exchange for a promise not to sue. Santander's clients have filed a class action lawsuit in a US court. 2010000000 euros owned by institutional investors and international private banking clients; €320 million belongs to private banking in Spain.

Vank Banco Santander lost $3.1 billion

Bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (€300 million)

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) - this is Spanish banking group It was formed from. merged from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and Argentaria in 1999, and is the second largest bank in Spain, which is represented in 30 countries with 8,000 offices. About 35 million customers and 1 million shareholders are served by this bank. BBVA provides a full range of banking services. The total assets of the bank are about 650 billion euros.

The company claims it has no direct contact with Madoff, but would face a loss of 300 million euros if the Madoff funds were found to be non-existent.

HSBC Bank ($1 billion)

HSBC Holdings plc, HSBC bank - this is one of the largest financial conglomerates in the world. According to the rating of Forbes magazine in 2011, it is the largest (by capitalization) company in Europe and the second in the world.

HSBC has financed a small number of institutional clients who have invested in funds from Madoff; some clients in its global depot business have invested with Madoff, but the company does not believe these measures should be a source of impact on the group.

HSBC bank lost $1 billion as a result of Meidof's machinations.

Royal Bank of Scotland ($600 million)

(The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc) is the second largest British bank, one of the largest commercial banks in Scotland. Founded in 1727. It is one of the three Scottish banks that have the right to issue banknotes. In 2007, operating income was 10.3 billion pounds, and the number of employees reached 170,000 people.

As a result of Madoff's machinations, the Royal Bank of Scotland lost $600 million.

Bank BNP Paribas ($468 million)

BNP Paribas - this is financial conglomerate, European leader in the global banking and financial services market and one of the six strongest banks in the world according to Standard & Poor's (current rating AA-). Together with Societe Générale and Crédit Lyonnais, it makes up the "big three" of the French banking market Headquartered in Paris, London and Geneva In 2010, in the list of the 50 most reliable banks in the world published by Global Finance magazine, the bank dropped to 18th place (compared to the previous 9th place).

The bank's management said the bank does not have its own investment in the Madoff-managed hedge fund, but it does have exposure (up to €350m) through its trading business and collateral lending to hedge fund funds.

French bank BNP Paribas lost $468 million.

Bank Natixis ($550 million)

Natixis - this is one of the largest French corporate and investment banks. It was created by the merger of Natexis Banque Populaire (Banque Populaire group) and IXIS (Caisse d'Epargne group) on October 17, 2006. These two main shareholders account for over 70% of the shares, while the rest are freely floated on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The company claims that it did not make direct investments in Madoff funds; but made some investments on behalf of clients. In 2008, the bank announced a loss of more than US$450 million from participating in the Madoff pyramid scheme.

Bank Medici ($2.1 billion)

The Medici Bank was a financial institution established by the Medici family in Italy in the 15th century (1397-1494). It was the largest and most respected bank in Europe during its heyday. There are some estimates that the Medici family was the wealthiest family in Europe. Estimating their wealth in today's money is difficult and inaccurate, given that they owned art, land, and gold. From this monetary wealth, the family acquired political power initially in Florence and later in the wider realms of Italy and Europe.

Austrian Bank Medici, 25 percent owned by UniCredit, suffered the largest potential loss associated with investments in the structures of the American fraudster

The Medici Bank lost $2.1 billion.

Fortis Bank Nederland ($850 billion)

Fortis Bank and its subsidiaries are not directly related to Bernard Madoff, but there is a risk of external exposure to certain funds he provides to secure loans. If, as a result of the alleged fraud, the value of the assets of these funds is zero and the respective clients are unable to meet their obligations, the loss of Fortis Bank Nederland (Holding) NV could be around EUR 850 million to EUR 1 billion.

Union Bancaire Privee ($1 billion)

Union Bancaire PRIVEE, located in Geneva, is one of the largest Swiss private and corporate wealth management banks, this activity includes three business units: personal banking, legal asset management and alternative asset management. It is also a world leader in alternative investments. Today, UPB is number one in the world in terms of customer deposits among family-owned banks. Also, UPB, thanks to almost thirty years of experience, is ranked second in the world in the hedge fund sector.

Half of the 22 UBP funds were invested with at least some of the money in Madoff. The main fund, Dinvest Total Return, has invested about 3% of more than $1 billion of assets in Madoff. One fund of funds has invested as much as 6.9% of the assets in Madoff.

Union Bancaire PRIVEE lost $1 billion.

Bank Banque Bendict Hentsch ($488 million)

Banque Bendict Hentsch, headquartered in Geneva, is a Swiss private bank that was established in a true spirit of partnership with the sole purpose of returning to the traditional values ​​of private banking with one to one relationships with each of its clients.

Banque Bendict Hentsch's loss is $488 million.

Liliane Betancourt ($22.9 billion)

The richest woman on the planet, Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the cosmetics empire L'Oreal, suffered the greatest losses as a result of the Madoff scam. Part of her fortune, estimated at $22.9 billion, she invested in the Madoff fund.

Liliane Betancourt is a French businesswoman and philanthropist, in the past she was also known as a socialite. Betancourt is a co-owner of the L "Oréal company founded by her father in 1909. With a fortune of 30 billion US dollars, she is one of the richest women in the world

Media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman ($30 million)

Real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, who also owns the New York Daily News publishing house, suffered even more impressive losses - $ 30 million belonging to the charity founded by Zuckerman and invested in the Madoff hedge fund disappeared without a trace. Zuckerman's investments were handled by a financial adviser, so the billionaire himself only found out about the losses after the Madoff scam was uncovered in December 2008.

Actor John Malkovich ($2.3 million)

Actor John Malkovich is demanding the return of $2.3 million he invested in the company of Bernard Madoff, who created the largest fraudulent financial scheme to date.

Madoff's fund liquidator Irving Picard in August 2009 approved the actor's claim for $670,000, which he invested to create his retirement plan and trust. This, according to the actor's lawyers, is $1.5 million less than the actor's account, according to the latest report provided by the foundation in November 2008. The corresponding application was sent to the Federal Court Southern District New York for bankruptcy.

TV presenter Larry King ($4 million)

American TV presenter Larry King participated in the pyramid of Bernard Madoff, as he himself announced in the TV show "Extra". According to him, the amount of investments amounted to about $4 million, while they managed to return $3.3 million.

“We received 200,000 from the Madoff estate and 500,000 from the government for taxes on shares that we never owned. We managed to get the money back, but for many people, of course, they didn’t,” King said.

Directed by Steven Spielberg ($100 million)

The most famous victim of the scam of the century was Hollywood producer and director Steven Spielberg.

The charitable organization Wunderkinder Foundation, founded by the famous Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, lost millions of dollars as a result of fraud - back in 2006, Spielberg decided to invest about 70% of the charity's funds in Madoff's projects. The total loss of one of the richest Hollywood directors amounted to about $ 100 million.

Karl Shapiro ($550 million)

The family of 97-year-old businessman Karl Shapiro, a longtime friend and business partner of Bernard Madoff, has agreed to pay $625 million to defrauded depositors, France Presse reports.

On Tuesday, December 7, the agreement concluded with the Shapiro family was announced by the interim manager of the Madoff fund, Irving Picard, representing the interests of the defrauded investors. According to Picard, the Shapiro family will transfer $550 million directly to the fund, while the remaining $75 million will go to the federal budget. The agreement reached by the parties, Picard explained, made it possible "to resolve all issues relating to potential claims against the Shapiro family by the foundation."

Karl Shapiro and Bernard Madoff have collaborated since 1961.

Husband and wife Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon ($50 million)

Madoff's stellar victims include actress Kyra Sedgwick and her husband, actor Kevin Bacon. The Hollywood couple invested some of their funds in a hedge fund founded by Madoff and lost up to $50 million, according to some experts.

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor ($10 million)

Zsa Zsa (Shari) Gabor was a sex symbol in the 1950s and 60s. She is partially paralyzed after she had an accident in 2002. Last year, the actress and her husband, Frederick von Anhalt, found themselves in an extremely difficult financial situation, as they lost $ 10 million on the financial pyramid of Bernard Madoff.

New York Mets owners ($162 million)

The owners of the popular Major League Baseball /MLB / New York Mets baseball team, American businessmen Saul Katz and Fred Wilpon, have reached a settlement with lawyer Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the victims of the pyramid scheme swindler Bernard Madoff. According to the agreement, sports functionaries will pay $162 million to the victims.

Thierry de la Villeuchet (1.5 billion euros)

Mark Madoff is not the only victim of the collapsed pyramid. On December 23, 2010, the founder of the American consulting organization Access International, 65-year-old Thierry de la Villeuchet, committed suicide, who could not come to terms with the loss of 1.5 billion euros invested in the collapsed pyramid.

When Bernard Madoff's pyramid was exposed, thousands of people around the world lost their savings. These funds were to provide for their retirement, go to the education of their children and grandchildren; often this was all they managed to accumulate during their lives.

Eldest son Mark

Madoff's sons and relatives were not charged, but they were extremely upset by what was happening. The eldest son, Mark, even planned to change his last name, worried for the safety of the family. Further events developed dramatically - 43-year-old Mark was found hanged in his New York apartment on December 11 last year. The main version is suicide, although investigators noted that he was wearing a suit, as if he was going out somewhere. According to American publications, Mark has not spoken to his parents for the past two years.

Who will cover the losses of Madoff's machinations?

About 20 European banks, including HSBC Holdings Plc, have agreed to compensate non-US investors for $15.5 billion in losses from Bernard Madoff's pyramid scheme. Lawyer Javier Gremades, who represents Madoff's victims, said the banks involved in the deal included financial institutions from France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Britain.

December 11, 2010 the deadline for filing claims for compensation by victims of the scam of B.Maidoff and his funds has come. In November, I. Picard filed more than 100 claims for compensation for lost funds. The most notorious were the lawsuits against the banks UBS, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase. Credit organizations are accused of pandering to B.Maidoff's machinations.

In January 2009, the Spanish bank Banco Santander was the first to announce that it would pay its private depositors 1.38 billion euros in compensation for losses from investments in Madoff's pyramid scheme. This was done after clients accused the bank of negligence, as their money was invested in Madoff Investment Securities without prior verification. financial activities fund.

JP Morgan Chase will pay the US government a $1.7 billion fine for failing to disclose Madoff Securities founder Bernard Madoff.

Compensation in exchange for dismissal of charges

In addition, the credit institution was required to assist regulators in the investigation of the Madoff scam for two years after the conclusion of the agreement. No JP Morgan employee was individually liable under the bank's agreement with US authorities. The media wrote about a fine for the bank in the amount of more than a billion dollars in connection with the "Madoff scam" in December 2013. JP Morgan did business with Madoff from 1986 to 2008.

JP Morgan Chase fined more than $2.5 billion in Madoff case

According to BBC News, JP Morgan was the main bank with which the investment fund Madoff Securities cooperated. Over 22 years, Madoff's account at JP Morgan has transacted over $150 billion. The $1.7 billion fine will not be the only time the bank has been forced to settle claims by US authorities. The total amount of fines imposed on JP Morgan exceeds $13 billion. These include payments due to improper trading in mortgage-backed securities and insufficient control over the actions of own traders.

Sources and links

Sources of texts, pictures and videos

en.wikipedia.org - a resource with articles on many topics, the free encyclopedia Wikipedia

youtube.com - YouTube, the largest video hosting in the world

rospres.com - RUSPRES, news agency, 150 years in prison as a symbol and prevention

peoples.ru - people, peoples.ru, Bernard Madoff

rusevik.ru - news portal, US bank to pay 1.7 billion to Madoff victims

nvestfunds.ua - information portal about personal investments and finances, ways of investing from Bernard Madoff

habrahabr.ru - finance in the IT industry, the Madoff scam

austincapitalgroup.com - austin capital company website

meta.kz - website news, Swiss bank to pay up to $500 million in Madoff case

ubp.com - about Union Bancaire Prive Bank "Union Bancaire Prive"

wugroup.ru - west union, Union Bancaire Privee (CH)

tengrinews.kz - up-to-date news at any time, UniCredit losses

hispablog.ru - hispa blog, Spanish banking system

ascotpartnerslp.com - latest news and information regarding Bernard L. Madoff

forum.kalmykia.ru - forum, kalmykia.ru, scams of the century

s.wsj.net - online magazine, Madoff victims

itar-tass.com - itar tass, baseball team owners to pay out Madoff victims

pbwm.ru - articles on the site, Larry King caught in Madoff's net

luxemag.ru - luxe Mag.ru, star victims of Madoff

izrus.co.il - IZRUS, bankrupt sponsor of "Russian" Judaica

sem40.ru - Central Jewish Resource, criminal case against Stanley Chase

p03.pravo.ru - PRAVO.ru, John Malkovich seeks $2.3 million from Madoff's assets

infobank.by - all about finances. Bernard Madoff and the global crisis

bigpicture.ru - news in photos, auction of personal belongings of Bernard Madoff

mosheniki.su - fraud, swindlers, swindlers, Bernard Madoff

en.wikisource.org – Wikisource, Bernard Madoff

coolreferat.com - bank of abstracts, biography of Bernard Madoff

gold.ru - information and analytical site, financial pyramid of Bernard Madoff

finfact.org - Pyramid by Bernard Madoff

investments.academic.ru - dictionaries and encyclopedias on Academician, financial pyramid

compromat.ru - compromising evidence library, 150 years in prison as a symbol and prevention

kommersant.ru - merchant. ru, son of Bernard Madoff committed suicide

lichnosti.net - personalities, Bernard Madoff

focus.ua - focus, scam of the century

chuchotezvous.ru - social communities, Bernard Madoff case

Links to internet services

forexaw.com - information and analytical portal for financial markets

google.ru - the largest search engine in the world

video.google.com - search for videos on the Internet using Google

translate.google.ru - translator from the Google search engine

yandex.ru - the largest search engine in Russia

wordstat.yandex.ru - a service from Yandex that allows you to analyze search queries

video.yandex.ru - search for videos on the Internet through Yandex

images.yandex.ru - search for images through the Yandex service

Links to application programs

windows.microsoft.com - the site of Microsoft Corporation, which created the Windows operating system

office.microsoft.com - website of the corporation that created Microsoft Office

chrome.google.ru - a commonly used browser for working with sites

hyperionics.com - site of the creators of the HyperSnap screen capture program

getpaint.net - free software for working with images

Article Creator

vk.com/id238040329 - profile in Vkontakte

odnoklassniki.ru/profile/236293636061 - Odnoklassniki profile

facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008317868136 - Facebook profile

twitter.com//Elena Lukyanenko @goldcoin7777 - Twitter profile

plus.google.com/111295713717655619651/posts - Google+ profile

hellenker4.livejournal.com - Livejournal blog

Bernard Lawrence Madoff is an American broker, financier and investment professional. He is best known as the organizer of the largest financial fraud in the history of the United States.

Madoff was born in Queens, New York (Queens, New York City, New York), in a Jewish family. Bernard received his education first at the University of Alabama, then at Hofstra University; Madoff graduated in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in political science. He briefly studied law in Brooklyn, but later switched to entrepreneurial activity, creating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Initially, this company was engaged in small-scale stock trading - its entire capital was earned by Madoff as a rescuer and assembler of irrigation systems 5,000 dollars. Bernard later borrowed another $50,000 from his father-in-law. Father-in-law greatly helped the Madoff cause - primarily with connections and recommendations. The company was doing well; Bernard experimented with new approaches and solutions - for example, he became the first well-known broker to accept payments from dealers for the right to execute certain customer orders.

Madoff paid great attention to connections; so, since 1991, he and his wife have donated to various politicians, parties and committees a total of about $ 240,000. Madoff's family held leadership positions in the largest securities market organization, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Madoff's name first surfaced in the context of a fraud story in 1992, when the SEC received a complaint from two clients of the Avellino & Bienes investment company. Eventually Madoff returned the clients their money and the case was closed.

In 2004, Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, one of the SEC Complaints and Investigations lawyers, told her superiors that there were a number of frankly dubious issues in Madoff's cases; the authorities, however, demanded that the investigation be stopped, and that the materials already discovered be handed over to them. One of the leaders, Eric Swanson, met Shana Madoff, Bernard's niece, back in 2003; They got engaged in 2006 and married in 2007. However, this did not help Madoff himself much. Suspicions against him began to be voiced back in 1999 - then financial analyst Harry Markopolos (Harry Markopolos) said that neither legally nor mathematically the profits declared by Bernard were simply impossible. The "SEC" ignored these statements; however, the largest players in the derivatives market preferred not to contact Madoff - his reports really looked suspiciously good. Nor did the largest Wall Street players invest in Bernard's companies.

Bernard Madoff was charged with securities fraud only on December 11, 2008; apparently, his children handed him over to the federal authorities - to whom Bernard shortly before admitted to the deeply fraudulent nature of the entire fund and its complete failure.

Madoff posted $10 million bail and remained under 24/7 surveillance for some time. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to violating 11 federal laws. Bernard did not make a deal with the government, although this could have reduced his term; there is reason to believe that Madoff simply did not want to hand over his accomplices and assistants. In his confession, Bernard explained that he started cheating in 1991; the company did not make any investments in it - in fact, Madoff created a financial pyramid according to the classic Ponzi scheme. Bernard deposited the funds received into a personal bank account; from there, if necessary, he withdrew money to pay dividends. Madoff stated that he planned to eventually switch to normal investment activity, but never managed; Bernard knew about the inevitable collapse of his enterprise, but he was no longer able to change something.

On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison; lawyers initially asked for a much more modest term - 7-12 years - emphasizing the respectable age of the defendant.

Best of the day

... And other adventures of Gaidai Visited:197

"Chess Prince"

On Saturday, the second anniversary of Bernard Madoff's arrest, his eldest son Mark hanged himself. It comes three days after Madoff Sr.'s liquidator filed an $80 million lawsuit that lists Mark, his children and his brother among the defendants.

On Saturday morning, 46-year-old Mark Madoff, the son of American financier and creator of the largest pyramid scheme in history, Bernard Madoff, was found dead in his apartment in New York. The body, hanging on a dog leash attached to a pipe under the ceiling, was discovered by Mark Madoff's father-in-law at 7:30. The father-in-law decided to visit him after Mark's wife reported that she had received "strange" e-mails from her husband. Mark Madoff left no note, after a forensic examination on Sunday, police officially ruled the case as a suicide. Mark Madoff committed suicide exactly two years after his father was arrested.

Three days earlier, Mark Madoff had learned that he, his children (a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son), and his younger brother, Andrew, were defendants in three lawsuits. The lawsuits were filed by Irving Picard, the liquidator of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), to seek $80 million in damages to investors affected by Madoff Sr.'s fraudulent scheme.

Mark Madoff was named in the lawsuit as the head of the London division of BLMIS, but no criminal charges were filed against him. The plaintiff alleges that Mark Madoff received "disproportionately high compensation" for his work at the company (amounting to $66 million), which he spent on an "excessively luxurious life" - for example, during three months in 2008 he spent $77 thousand on private jets. On Saturday, Irving Picard expressed his condolences to the family of Mark Madoff.

Madoff's eldest son had been with his father's company since 1986, immediately after graduating from college, but, in his own words, did not know that the company's activities were based on fraud. As stated in court documents, on December 10, 2008, Bernard Madoff himself admitted to his sons that his business is "essentially a giant pyramid scheme" and "one big lie." He said that his company had been bankrupt for many years. According to him, the company's losses at that time amounted to more than $50 billion, and the company had a relatively small amount in the range of $200-300 million, which he planned to use to pay off debts to his employees, friends and family members. On the same day, his sons Mark and Andrew notified the US authorities, and Bernard Madoff was arrested the next day and sentenced to 150 years in prison last summer.

Bernard Madoff, who is serving time at Butner Prison in North Carolina, may not be allowed to attend his son's funeral, as the rules state that an inmate can attend a relative's funeral only if he has less than two years left before his release. However, representatives of the prison say that he has the right to petition that he be allowed to say goodbye to his son.

On the same day, December 11, the deadline for the liquidator of the Bernard Madoff company, Irving Picard, to file all necessary claims, expired. Over the past three weeks, he has filed about 60 lawsuits totaling more than $40 billion against numerous banks, hedge funds and individuals. Overall, during his time as acting liquidator of BLMIS, Irving Picard has filed $55.5 billion in compensation claims so far he has been able to secure $2.5 billion of them.

Bernard Madoff's pyramid scheme at the time of his arrest was estimated at $65 billion, making it the largest in history. Losses to investors amounted to $ 20 billion. The death of Mark Madoff was not the first suicide associated with this pyramid scheme. Immediately after the arrest of Bernard Madoff in December 2008, the founder of the hedge fund Access International Advisors, René-Thierry Magon de la Villeuchet, who invested his clients' funds in BLMIS, committed suicide.