Bernie Madoff Victims To Receive Final Restitution Payments, DOJ Says
HuffPost
Nearly 94% of the billions of dollars lost in Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme have been recovered, according to the Justice Department.
Thousands of victims of Bernard Madoff’s notorious Ponzi scheme are set to receive final restitution payments, raising the percentage of total losses recovered to nearly 94%, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Over $131.4 million is being sent to more than 23,000 fraud victims globally in a 10th and final distribution from the Madoff Victim Fund, the DOJ said.
The fund has already paid out more than $4.3 billion to nearly 41,000 victims in 127 countries following the uncovering of the multibillion-dollar scheme in December 2008, the department said.
“Today’s distribution represents an unprecedented conclusion of victim compensation from civil forfeiture actions related to the Madoff scheme with more than $4 billion repaid to over 40,000 victims,” said James Dennehy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. “These victims implicitly trusted Madoff with their investments only to ultimately lose significant monies to his selfish plan.”
More than half of the recovery money, or $2.2 billion, was collected from the estate of deceased Madoff investor Jeffry Picower. An additional $1.7 billion came from a settlement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, and the remaining funds came from investor Carl Shapiro, the Madoff family and their co-conspirators, the DOJ said.