Bernie Madoff built a reputation as a Wall Street pioneer and even served as chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, using that credibility to attract billions of dollars from individual investors, charities, and institutions into his private investment fund, which promised suspiciously consistent returns year after year.
In reality, Madoff wasn't investing the money at all — he was running a Ponzi scheme, paying returns to existing clients using cash from new investors. When the 2008 financial crisis triggered a wave of withdrawal requests he couldn't cover, the scheme finally collapsed, and Madoff confessed to his sons, who reported him to the FBI.
Investigators found roughly $65 billion in claimed (mostly fabricated) account value, though real losses of actual invested principal are estimated at $17–20 billion. Madoff pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021. Thousands of investors, including major charities, lost their life savings.
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