WASHINGTON — Victims of the largest Ponzi scheme in history are beginning to receive their final payout, the Justice Department announced Monday. 


What You Need To Know

  • Victims of the largest Ponzi scheme in history will receive their final payout, the Department of Justice announced Monday

  • The 10th and final distribution of the Madoff Victim Fund will distribute $131.4 million to 23,000 individuals who were duped by Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in the 1990s

  • With its final payout, the DOJ’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section has returned more than $4.3 billion to 40,930 victims in 127 countries who lost their money when Madoff’s investment business collapsed

  • Madoff’s victims will have recovered 93.71% of their losses from the fraud that he, according to prosecutors, perpetrated over decades.

The 10th and final distribution of the Madoff Victim Fund will distribute $131.4 million to 23,000 individuals who were duped by Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.

“These victims implicitly trusted Madoff with their investments only to ultimately lose significant monies to his selfish plan,” FBI New York Field Office Assistant Director James E. Dennehy said in a statement. 

The Madoff Victim Fund has been distributing fraud compensation since 2017. With its final payout, the DOJ’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section will have returned more than $4.3 billion to 40,930 victims in 127 countries who lost their money when Madoff’s investment business collapsed.

Madoff’s victims will have recovered 93.71% of their losses from the fraud that he perpetrated as chairman of the investment advisory business he founded in 1960, the Justice Department said. According to court documents and information presented in legal proceedings, Madoff stole from his clients over decades. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies for using his firm to bilk investors and was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Madoff died in prison in 2021 at the age of 82.

The victims’ distributions were made possible through assets forfeited to the U.S. government, including $2.2 billion collected from the estate of a deceased Madoff investor. Another $1.7 billion was collected as part of an agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, with many of the remaining funds collected through civil and criminal forfeiture actions against Madoff, his brother Peter and their co-conspirators.

Prosecutors initially estimated the total fraud to be around $65 billion, but that number dropped sharply after authorities subtracted false profits Madoff told his clients their investments had yielded.