Victims of Bernie Madoff will receive an additional $469.6 million, bringing their total recovery from various sources to nearly 67% of their losses, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced Monday.
This is the fourth payment made to victims from the Madoff Victim Fund established by the Department of Justice to help repay victims of the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The scheme had 25,000 victims worldwide who thought they had lost everything. This will bring their recovery to 66.85% of their losses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Madoff, 81, who is serving a 150-year sentence in the federal prison medical facility in Butner, N.C., asked President Trump in July to commute his sentence, which would mean he would be released. The request is pending, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The total that has actually been distributed to victims from the Madoff Victim Fund so far is $2.4 billion and will eventually reach $4 billion. Other sources for recovery also have been set up to help victims who suffered when BLMIS, Madoff’s investment advisory business he founded, collapsed. Another $5 billion in assets recovered by the U.S. Attorney’s Office are being separately paid to Madoff victims through the BLMIS Customer Fund administered by the Securities Investor Protection Act Trustee.
“This extraordinary level of recovery represents this office’s tireless commitment to compensating the victims who suffered as a result of Madoff’s heinous crimes,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski added, “The upheaval and devastation wrought by Bernie Madoff’s massive fraud continue to reverberate across the United States and the globe.”
Beginning in the early 1970s, Madoff used his position as chairman of BLMIS to steal billions from his clients, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. In 2009, “Madoff pled guilty to 11 federal felonies, admitting that he had turned his wealth management business into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, benefitting himself, his family and select members of his inner circle.” In addition to his prison sentence, Madoff was ordered to forfeit nearly $171 billion.
The Madoff Victim Fund is funded through recoveries by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in various criminal and civil forfeiture actions. Of the about $4.05 billion that will be made available to victims through the Madoff Victim Fund, about $2.2 billion was collected as part of the civil forfeiture recovery from the estate of deceased Madoff investor Jeffry Picower.
An additional $1.7 billion was collected as part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. for Madoff-related Bank Secrecy Act violations. Additional funds were collected through criminal and civil forfeiture actions against Madoff and his co-conspirators, and some Madoff investors. Additional information about the Madoff Victim Fund can be found at www.madoffvictimfund.com.