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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Madoff Drama Continues: Nearly 52,000 Make Claims for Restitution

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Bernie Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in NC.
Bernie Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in NC.
It’s not over yet. Not by a long shot.

Officials say the number of claimants, and the amount of losses incurred, in Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme is much greater than initially anticipated.

In an announcement Tuesday, the Madoff Victim Fund says it has received nearly 52,000 requests, from nearly 120 countries, demanding restitution for losses amounting to more than $40 billion—$18 billion more than what was previously assumed associated with the scheme.

All inclusive, it’s estimated that $65 billion disappeared.

Richard Breeden, head of the fund, said in a statement. “This fraud was of epic, and truly global, proportions.”

However, the fund expects actual figures to be somewhat lower after weeding out what are certain to be a number of ineligible, duplicate, and overstated claims, including requests from pooled investors.

The claims come from countries on every continent other than Antarctica. The U.S. holds the most claimants; following them are Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Taiwan.

Officials say the fund has received more than three times as many claims as filed in the bankruptcy proceedings. Most of the claims are for amounts lost under $500 thousand, about 9.5 percent are for losses between $500 thousand and $1 million, and approximately 13 percent are for more than $1 million.

When all the claims have been reviewed, the fund will recommend a course of action for each individual request to the DOJ, and they will make all final decisions on distribution. The timeline of this process has yet to be determined, according to the fund, and it’s no wonder: in total, the claimants have submitted more than 3 million pages of backup documentation.

It’s unfortunate that many of the victims have not seen a dime since the scheme unfolded, and it appears that, with these staggering figures now unveiled, it will be some time more before they are compensated for their losses.

Five of Madoff’s former office workers were convicted last month after a lengthy Manhattan Federal Court trial, and they face decades in prison. Madoff himself is serving a 150-year sentence in North Carolina after pleading guilty in 2009.

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