On December 30, 2024, the government shared an important update on its Madoff Ponzi Scheme victim recovery distribution efforts.

The Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) shelled out over $131.4 million to victims in its 10th and final round of distributions to victims of the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) fraud scheme. These funds will be distributed to over 23,000 victims around the world.

With the completion of this final distribution, the MVF will have paid a total of $4.3 billion to over 40,930 victims in 127 countries. The recovery effort has enabled Madoff’s victims to recoup 93.71% of the funds lost when BLMIS collapsed. Many victims were small investors who lost under $500,000 to the scheme.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said: “The Criminal Division, through its Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), is proud to administer the department’s remission program to compensate victims using forfeited assets. The unprecedented scope and complexity of the Madoff remission process shows the power of forfeiture to recover assets and to compensate victims — a primary goal of the department’s Asset Forfeiture Program.”

The 10th and last distribution resulted from tireless work locating victims across the globe and untangling a dense web of financial transactions to grant compensation to victims.

Bernard L. Madoff founded the investment advisory business, BLMIS, in 1960. As chairman of the company, he used his status to swindle billions from clients. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pled guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted he converted his wealth management business into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme. This fraud benefitted himself, his family, and his close associates.

On June 29, 2009, Madoff received a 150-year prison sentence. $4 billion was available to victims and around $2.2 billion was collected by the historic civil forfeiture recovery from Jeffry Picower’s estate, a deceased Madoff investor. $1.7 billion was additionally collected from a deferred prosecution agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., and civilly forfeited in a parallel action. Other funds stemmed from a civil forfeiture action against investor Carl Shapiro and his family. Additional funds came from civil and criminal actions against Bernard L. Madoff, Peter B. Madoff, and their associates.

The MVF’s compensation is made possible by MLARS, which manages the forfeiture victim compensation program. This also resulted from the collaborative efforts of the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

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Read $4.3B! DOJ Announces 10th and Final Distribution of Financial Recovery to 40,000+ Madoff Ponzi Scheme Victims at constantinecannon.com