Bernie Madoff Victims Get $158 Million in Latest Payment From Recovery Fund

Fifteen years after the arrest of Bernie Madoff — architect of the largest-ever Ponzi scheme in American history — the U.S. Department of Justice is still dealing with the fallout.

The department on Monday announced its ninth payout to victims of the scheme, distributing $158 million to nearly 24,900 people around the world through the Madoff Victim Fund. Started in 2013, the fund has so far paid out $4.22 billion to more than 40,840 people, according to the Justice Department.

"The financial toll on those who entrusted their money with Madoff was devastating, and this Office’s unprecedented efforts to return money to Madoff’s victims has now resulted in clawbacks of 91% of fraud losses to their rightful owners," said Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The victims of Madoff's $64 billion securities fraud included wealthy institutional investors and celebrities alike, including Steven Spielberg, Zsa Zsa Gabor, billionaire investor Ira Rennert and Kevin Bacon. Also hit were charities and pension funds that invested on behalf of people "working paycheck-to-paycheck who were relying on their pension accounts for their retirements," Williams said.

In March 2009, Madoff admitted to stealing billions of dollars from his clients and that his investment advisory business — Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC — was a Ponzi scheme. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison later that year and died in April 2021 at age 82 while serving his sentence.

Of the more than $4 billion paid out to victims, about $2.2 billion was collected as part of the civil forfeiture recovery from the estate of the late Jeffry Picower, the Justice Department said. Picower netted $7.2 billion from Madoff's scheme and was the largest beneficiary of the fraud. He died in 2009 and his widow, Barbara Picower, turned over the entire sum to the U.S. government the following year.

Another $1.7 billion was collected through a deferred prosecution agreement with JPMorgan Chase, the bank Madoff used to run his scheme. The remaining funds were collected through civil forfeiture against the late Kay Windsor founder Carl Shapiro — who had been investing with Madoff since the early 1960s — and other government action against the Madoff family and their co-conspirators, the Justice Department said.