NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to investing en masse, died in a federal prison.
According to Alice Gainer of CBS2, he has been ill for some time with end-stage renal disease and other chronic medical conditions.
READ MORE: Sources: Ex-boyfriend shoots a woman working at the construction site on the island of the city
Last year, Madoff’s lawyers filed lawsuits to try to release him from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the request was denied.
More than 15,000 lawsuits have been filed against Madoff. About 70% of the funds lost to investors were reimbursed.
Madoff was the mastermind behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He died while serving his 150-year sentence in North Carolina.
Madoff, former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, has erased the life savings of thousands of people, the investments of universities, charities and celebrities.
“Forty years of savings and all my pension. There’s nothing left – I’m on food stamps, “said Madoff investor Miriam Siegman.
“This betrayal is very difficult for me because he was a man who, we were friends for 35 years and investors for 25 years,” said former Mets owner Fred Wilpon.
Before making his name on Wall Street, Madoff grew up in a neighborhood in Queens, where he married his high school sweetheart Ruth.
He started his investment business with a few thousand dollars in savings and set up the store in financial capital in the 1960s. For decades, his fund did not make transactions, allowing investors to redeem their accounts by withdrawing from new investors. In 2008, the financial crisis forced investors to withdraw. He couldn’t keep up and told his family.
“It simply came to our notice then. I ran a Ponzi scheme, “said his ex-wife Ruth Madoff 60 minutes.
His sons handed him over.
READ MORE: A new effort to help pandemic front-line health workers process their pain
In 2009, he pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges. He said he was “deeply ill and ashamed.”
Madoff was so ugly he had to wear a bulletproof vest in court.
An attorney was appointed to recover the funds, sometimes by suing hedge funds and other large investors who came forward.
To date, more than $ 13 billion of the approximately $ 17.5 billion that investors have put into Madoff’s business has been returned. His houses and yacht were put up for auction to compensate the victims.
“Not only did Madoff’s property go bankrupt, but there were bankruptcies because he could not repay the people. Many investors themselves have gone bankrupt, “said lawyer Robert Wallner.
Wallner represented the litigant of two large funds that invested with Madoff and went bankrupt.
“There are a lot of people who not only had to give back money they took out, but they had to give back money they never had,” Wallner said. “You think of all the victims he left behind, and honestly, that’s what I thought – not his death.”
Half a dozen Madoff associates were arrested. His son committed suicide on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest. His wife interrupted him.
“A very sad episode in the history of our city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. “Many, many people have been hurt by his actions and it’s time to hope that we turn the page and move on.”
In 2019, Madoff’s lawyers had also asked former President Donald Trump for a reduced sentence. None was given.
MORE NEWS: Investigators are working to determine if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may cause blood clots
Madoff was 82 years old.