More funds recovered for victims of Bernie Madoff

December 9, 2022

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(NEW YORK) — The trustee for the liquidation of Bernie Madoff’s defunct and fraudulent investment firm announced on Friday a new distribution of recovered funds to swindled customers.

This is the 14th distribution to victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and brings the total amount restored to more than $14 billion.

The trustee has been pursuing stolen customer funds since Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 and signaled there would be additional recoveries in 2023.

“We are proud to continue our quest to recover additional funds and return them to defrauded claimants,” the trustee, Irving Picard, said in a statement.

When combined with the prior distributions, the fourteenth distribution will equal about 70% of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible customers will total more than $14.36 billion. This recovery far exceeds any prior restitution effort related to Ponzi schemes both in terms of dollars and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

Madoff died of natural causes in April 2021 while being housed at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. He was 82.