Bernard Lawrence Madoff (born Bernard Lawrence Madoff; April 29, 1938 – April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who organized the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. For some time, he served as chairman of the board of directors of the NASDAQ stock exchange.

In 1960, he founded the Wall Street investment company Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, located at the Lipstick Building, 900 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10022, USA, at the time of the crash, and headed it until December 11, 2008, when he was accused of fraud, as his company turned into a huge financial pyramid. On June 29, 2009, Bernard Madoff was sentenced by a New York court to 150 years in prison for his scam.

Biography

Born in 1938 to Jewish parents, Bernard Madoff graduated from the prestigious Far Rockaway High School in New York City in 1956, where he was not considered an outstanding student. He was fond of swimming. In 1960, he graduated from Hofstra College in New York with a bachelor's degree in political science. During his studies, he worked as a lifeguard on the beach and an installer of garden irrigation installations, saving 5 thousand dollars on this. With this money, he founded his own company, Madoff Investment Securities, in 1960.

10 years later, he recruited his brother Peter, and later his nephews Roger and Shana, and both of his sons, Mark and Andrew.

Madoff took part in the creation of the American stock exchange NASDAQ, which was engaged in the purchase and sale of securities in the interests of investors.

Madoff Investment Securities was one of the 25 largest participants in the exchange's trading, its creator has been called a pillar of Wall Street and a pioneer of electronic trading on the exchange, he was one of the first in New York to fully computerize his firm's document flow.

Madoff was a member of the board of directors of NASDAQ and was its chairman in the early 1990s. Madoff was also chairman of the board of directors of Madoff Securities International, a hedge fund founded in 1983 and headquartered in London. In 1985, he was also one of the founders and a member of the board of directors of the International Securities Clearing Corporation, which was engaged in financial clearing, non-cash settlements between companies and states.

Madoff was known for his philanthropic work: after the death of his nephew Roger from leukemia in 2006, he regularly donated to research into ways to treat cancer and diabetes. Together with his wife, he founded the Madoff Family Foundation, which donated millions of dollars to theaters, museums, educational institutions and Jewish charities. In addition, Madoff was treasurer of the board of attorneys at Yeshiva University School of Business and a member of the board of attorneys at Hofstra University. In addition, Madoff made donations to the election campaigns of American politicians, mainly members of the Democratic Party.

Madoff was a member of several elite ski and golf clubs, owned apartments in Manhattan, houses in Palm Beach and in France. In the Bahamas, he had his own yacht.

In 2008, he was accused of creating the largest pyramid scheme in history. On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced by a New York court to 150 years in prison for his scam (see Bernard Madoff Scam).

Mark Madoff, one of Bernard Madoff's sons, was found hanged in his New York City home on December 11, 2010. According to preliminary data, he committed suicide. Mark was a witness in his father's case, and he was not charged as an accomplice. But in 2009, he was charged with illegally acquiring luxury housing in New York and Connecticut worth $66 million. Andrew's second son died of cancer in 2014, at the age of 48.

Madoff died "of natural causes" at the age of 83 on April 14, 2021, in a North Carolina state prison. A year earlier, he had announced that he was dying of a serious illness and had asked to be released.

As of 2024, the court-appointed trustee has recovered almost 90% of investors' losses ($14.7 billion).