Bernie Madoff, architect of largest Ponzi scheme in history, dies in US prison
“I’m terminally ill,” he told The Washington Post newspaper at the time. “There’s no cure for my type of disease. So, you know, I’ve served. I’ve served 11 years already, and, quite frankly, I’ve suffered through it”
Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, has died in a US federal prison, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
Madoff, who was serving a 150-year sentence, died at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, apparently from natural causes, the agency quoted a source as saying on the condition of anonymity.
Last year, Madoffs lawyers filed court papers to try to get the 82-year-old released from prison in the COVID-19 pandemic, saying he had suffered from end-stage renal disease and other chronic medical conditions. The request was denied.
“I’m terminally ill,” he told The Washington Post newspaper at the time. “There’s no cure for my type of disease. So, you know, I’ve served. I’ve served 11 years already, and, quite frankly, I’ve suffered through it.”
Madoff admitted swindling thousands of clients out of billions of dollars in investments over decades. The paper losses totalled nearly $65 billion, including fictional profits he had credited to customer accounts over at least two decades.
