His death Wednesday at the Federal Medical Center at the Butner, North Carolina prison, was confirmed by the US Bureau of Prisons. A cause of death has not been released.
Judge Denny Chin, who originally imposed the 150-year sentence, rejected his request for release, calling his crime “one of the most blatant financial crimes of our time,” and one that continued to take “a dizzying human toll.”
“When I convicted Mr. Madoff in 2009, it was my full intention that he would live the rest of his life in prison,” de Chin wrote in his order last June. “The symbolism of a 150-year sentence was important: the public’s confidence had been eroded by Mr. Madoff’s ability to manipulate the system for so many years that he deserved to be punished according to his moral guilt.”
One of the few kind words about Madoff Wednesday came from Brandon Sample, one of his lawyers.
“Bernie lived with guilt and regret for his crimes until his death,” Sample said. Although the crimes for which Bernie was convicted have come to define who he was – he was also a father and husband. He was gentle and an intellectual. Bernie certainly wasn’t perfect. But no man is. ‘
He had a storied career on Wall Street, bringing famous astronomical returns for his investors, including director Steven Spielberg, actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon.
He was president of the Nasdaq for several years in the 1990s, collecting beach houses, boats, and a penthouse in Manhattan. But Madoff was arrested in 2008 and pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges in 2009. He had used money from new investors to pay back previous investors. He supposedly had a total of $ 65 billion under management, but two-thirds of that money was made up by Bernie Madoff. The rest was the principle of its investors.
Madoff founded Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in 1960, but no one has been able to prove when Madoff started stealing from investors.
He told CNNMoney in a 2013 interview that it all started in 1987, but he later said the plan started in 1992. Madoff’s former account manager, Frank DiPascali, Jr., said in court that there had been financial crimes “for so long.” as I remember. ”He started working for the firm in 1975.
“The pain the victims of Mr. Madoff’s fraud are experiencing is not diminished by his death, nor is our work for his victims finished,” said Picard. “My legal team and I are committed to continuing to identify and recover Mr. Madoff’s stolen funds and return them to their rightful owners.”
Madoff was born on April 29, 1938 in the Queens borough of New York City, where he met his wife Ruth in high school. They had two sons, both of whom worked for their father’s company. Mark Madoff, the eldest son, died of suicide in 2010.
Madoff’s brother Peter also served a 10-year sentence for his involvement in the plan. He was convicted in 2012 and released from prison in November 2019 to home confinement. His incarceration ended in August last year.