The pool disbursing money to the victims of Bernie Madoff’s legendary Ponzi scheme began its 10th and final distribution on Monday, putting another $131 million in the pockets of swindled investors.
Twenty-three thousand victims worldwide are receiving payments, bringing their total recoveries to 94% of their losses. Most of these victims were tiny investors who lost less than $500,000 in the fraud, according to federal prosecutors.
Since the collapse of Madoff’s resource house and his 2009 guilty plea, the Madoff Victim pool has paid more than $4 billion to nearly 41,000 victims in 127 countries.
“This office has never stopped pursuing fairness for victims of history’s largest Ponzi scheme,” acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim said.
For decades, Madoff used the resource advisory business he founded in 1960 to steal billions from his clients, turning his riches management firm into the globe’s largest Ponzi scheme to advantage himself, his household and select members of his inner circle.
He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021.
“The unprecedented scope and complexity of the Madoff remission procedure shows the power of forfeiture to recover assets and to compensate victims,” capital Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Wible said in a statement on Monday.
