NEW YORK – Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme led to former New York Mets owners being involved in a $ 1 billion lawsuit, has died in prison at the age of 82.
Madoff burned thousands of investors, outstripped regulators, and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. He died of natural causes at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina.
His victims included director Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. But he also had ties to sports figures. Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was a client. And Mets’ former owners Fred Wilpon, Jeff Wilpon and Saul Katz were big investors. Their involvement changed the franchise’s trajectory.
Wilpon and Katz had more than 500 accounts with Madoff and were charged $ 1 billion by the trustee for the victims who claimed they knew or should have known about the fraudulent proceeds of Madoff’s plan, according to The New York Times.
Madoff was known for his double-digit reporting and dissemination of messages. Koufax was a high school friend of Wilpon’s. Former Mets infielder Tim Teufel, former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman and former New York Islanders player Bob Nystrom also invested with Madoff.
In addition, the Mets Limited Partnership, the New York Mets Foundation, and Brooklyn Baseball Company – the company that owns the minor league Brooklyn Cyclones – had accounts with Madoff.
While Madoff did business with the rich and famous, he also cheated on everyday investors and charities. He was so reviled that he had to wear a bulletproof vest in court.
Madoff admitted to prosecutors that he had lost more than $ 50 billion in investors.
The collapse of his Ponzi scheme drastically impacted the Mets’ finances, forcing the Wilpons to take out $ 65 million in loans to pay payroll, including $ 25 million from other baseball owners. The team previously negotiated complicated contracts that involved deferring money – including Bobby Bonilla’s infamous deal to pay the retired slugger $ 1 million a year through 2035 – to invest money with Madoff.
“Bernie was part of the business plan for the Mets,” a former team employee told The New York Times in 2011.
As a result, the team’s payroll has shrunk from $ 140 million in 2011 to $ 95 million in 2012 to $ 85 million in 2014 as salaries increased across the game. Subsequently, the Wilpons slowly lost power and their financial interest in the team.
Current Mets owner Steve Cohen bought $ 20 million minority stakes in the Mets following the collapse of Madoff’s Ponzi plan, eventually buying majority stake of the franchise from the Wilpon and Katz families in September 2020.
Madoff pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges in March 2009. In June 2009, a judge ordered a $ 171 billion forfeiture order depriving Madoff of all of his personal belongings, including real estate, investments and $ 80 million in assets.
The scandal also took a personal toll on Madoff’s family: one of his sons, Mark, committed suicide on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest in 2010. And Madoff’s brother, Peter, who helped run the business , was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012, despite claims that he was in the dark about his brother’s misdeeds.
Madoff’s other son, Andrew, died of cancer at the age of 48. Madoff’s wife, Ruth, is still alive.
This report uses information from The Associated Press.