Bernie Madoff the man reported to be behind the world’s biggest Ponzi Scheme in history, is dead. He died in prison where he was serving a 150-years sentence, and was aged, 82.
According to reports, Bernie Madoff who is worth a reported $65million, died at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, a source told the Associated Press on Wednesday morning.
Bernie Madoff had end-stage kidney disease and other chronic health issues and died of natural causes, according to AP.
Madoff’s lawyers filed papers in court last year to try to get him released from prison amid the coronavirus pandemic, citing his renal disease, but were denied.
He was serving a 150-year prison sentence. His stock fraud, the biggest in Wall Street history, was discovered in the late 2000s during a worldwide financial crisis. More than 37,000 investors fell victim across 136 countries, from retirees who put in their life savings to the rich and famous to schools and nonprofits.
Among the celebrity victims were actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme even hurt his family and those close to him. Yeshiva University, which had Madoff as a board member, lost more than $100million, which was about 8% of its endowment.
In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges and said he was ‘deeply sorry and ashamed’. But US District Judge Denny Chin handed a maximum sentence to Madoff.
‘Here, the message must be sent that Mr Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless financial crime that takes place just on paper’, Chin said. ‘But it is instead… one that takes a staggering human toll’.
The story is still developing, as no official statement has been released on his death.