The Madoff Victim Fund began distributing nearly $159 million in government-seized funds to nearly 25,000 people worldwide in its ninth payout, the Justice Department said Monday.
Coming 15 years after Bernard Madoff's arrest for running a historic Ponzi scheme and more than two years after his death in prison, the announcement highlighted the ongoing impact of the world's largest fraud scheme.
Nicole Argentieri, acting assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice's criminal division, said in a statement that the collapse of the nearly $65 billion securities fraud scam "devastated thousands of lives."
According to the DOJ, with the latest dispersal, the fund has paid more than $4.2 billion to more than 40,800 victims who were defrauded in the scheme.
To date, Argentieri said the victim fund has helped recover "over 90% of victim losses."
While Madoff's victims included A-list celebrities and financial institutions, they also included charities and pension funds that invested money for people "working paycheck-to-paycheck," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
"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 have now resulted in clawbacks of 91% of fraud losses to their rightful owners," Williams said.
In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and was sentenced to 150 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars over decades from his clients by turning his wealth management business, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, into a giant Ponzi scheme.
The Madoff Victim Fund collected approximately $2.2 billion through a civil forfeiture recovery from the estate of deceased Madoff investor Jeffrey Picower. In 2014, an additional $1.7 billion was netted from JPMorgan Chase as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.
The DOJ said the remaining funds came from "a civil forfeiture action against investor Carl Shapiro and his family, and from civil and criminal forfeiture actions against Madoff, Peter B. Madoff, and their co-conspirators."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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