Financier Bernie Madoff was arrested in December 2008 after confessing to his sons that his investment advisory business was, in his words, one big lie, a Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of an estimated 65 billion dollars in paper wealth over decades, the largest such fraud in history. Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021, and the scandal prompted significant reforms to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission oversight of investment advisers. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Event TypeFinancial fraud scandal 1 Connections
Associated With
Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, uncovered in 2008, defrauded investors of tens of billions of dollars and remains the largest investment fraud ever committed by an individual.
Source Wikipedia, Madoff Investment Scandal
Companies Involved
Source Wikipedia, Madoff Investment Scandal
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Madoff Investment Scandal
WikipediaLead section, opening paragraph
In December of that year, Bernie Madoff, the former Nasdaq chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
- Associated With: Finance
Companies Involved: Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Lead section, guilty plea and sentencing paragraph
On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes and admitted to operating the largest known Ponzi scheme in history. On June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed, with restitution of $170 billion.
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