5 key things to know about the case against Bernie Madoff

Bernie Madoff, the man whose unbelievable rise and down-fall are explored in the new Netflix documentary series, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street, was behind the biggest Ponzi Scheme in the entire world. The docu-series airs exclusively on the popular streaming platform Netflix on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, at 3 am ET.

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street has been directed by critically acclaimed Oscar-nominated director Joe Berlinger. The series has a total of four parts, and the official Netflix synopsis for the miniseries reads:

"With an innovative visual approach, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street is a four part edge-of your seat financial thriller which reveals the truth behind Bernie Madoff’s infamous multibillion-dollar global Ponzi scheme and the ways in which a willfully blind financial system allowed it to flourish for decades."

Ever since Netflix released the official trailer for the documentary series chronicling the astonishing true story of financier and swindler Bernie Madoff, the audience has been quite eager to learn all about the case.

So, without further delay, let's dig deep and find out some pivotal facts about the case against Bernie Madoff, ahead of Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street's release on Netflix.

Associates, conviction and 3 other significant details about the astounding case of Bernie Madoff

1) Bernie Madoff was a fraudster who was the mastermind behind the largest Ponzi Scheme of all time

A still from Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (Image Via Netflix/YouTube)

Reportedly, infamous financier Bernie Madoff operated the biggest Ponzi Scheme in the entire globe from almost 1970 to 2008. The man was the NASDAQ stock exchange's one-time chairperson. He developed the pay-for-order flow concept and the increase of platforms and service providers for electronic trading.

Reportedly, in 1960, Bernie also went on to establish a penny stock brokerage, which later grew even larger and was named Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. He was the chairperson of the company until 2008.

2) Madoff defrauded numerous investors of approximately $65 billion

The Ponzi Scheme, a notorious investment scheme conducted and operated for years by Madoff, defrauded thousands and thousands of investors of several billion dollars.

Bernie Madoff claimed that he started the Ponzi investment scheme around the 1990s, but a former trader said that he had been faking records for Bernie since almost early 1970s. Individuals who were charged with the mission of recovering a huge amount of missing money also believe that the chances of Madoff's investment plan ever being legitimate are quite low.

Reportedly, almost $65 billion was missing from the accounts of Madoff's numerous clients, entailing even other fabricated monetary gains.

SIPC or the Securities Investor Protection Corporation trustee estimated investors' actual losses of approximately $18 billion, of which approximately $14.418 billion has been recovered by authorities and returned so far, while the search for additional funds is still ongoing.

3) Madoff's employees were also involved in the Ponzi Scheme

Reportedly, Bernie Madoff was not the only person to have faced legal action in association with the 2008 Ponzi Scheme. Allegedly, in 2014, five employees of Madoff were found guilty of being part of the scheme.

Bernie's lawyer and accountant David G. Friehling went on to reportedly face a sentence of a total of 114 years behind bars in 2009, but he was later charged with a fine and then went on to receive a sentence of just 1 year of house arrest and additionally, another year of supervised release.

At his firm, Bernie also employed Peter Madoff, his own brother, as the chief compliance officer and the senior managing director, while he appointed Shana Madoff, Peter's daughter, as the compliance and rules attorney and officer at his firm. The man also employed his two sons, Andrew Madoff and Mark Madoff, who are now deceased.

In 2012, Peter was reportedly given a 10-year imprisonment sentence, while in 2010, Mark Madoff hanged himself, exactly 2 years after his father Bernie's arrest. On September 3, 2014, Andrew Madoff reportedly passed away due to lymphoma.

4) Authorities caught Madoff in 2008

Reportedly, on December 10, 2008, Bernie Madoff's sons Andrew and Mark went to the authorities to disclose their father's confession to them regarding his enormous Ponzi scheme. The very next day, officers from the FBI arrested and convicted Bernie.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, previously operated several investigations into his business plans and schemes. However, they were unable to uncover the giant fraud. On March 12, 2009, Bernie was found guilty of 11 federal felonies.

5) He was sentenced to 150 years of imprisonment

On June 29, 2009, Bernie Madoff was given a prison sentence of a total of 150 years, the maximum imprisonment sentence that is allowed. The sentence of 150 years behind bars was more symbolic than literal.

During Madoff's trial in court, his lawyers requested the judge to reduce the sentence to 7 years, and then 12 years, due to the limited life expectancy of Madoff, who was 70 years of age at the time. However, the request was overruled by the judge because they deemed Bernie's crimes as being "extraordinarily evil."

In 2020, Bernie requested a release, explaining to the judge his severe kidney disease, but it was denied. Reportedly, on April 14, 2021, Madoff's life ended inside the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, due to chronic kidney disease.

Catch Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street exclusively on Netflix, which airs this Wednesday, January 4, 2023, at 3 am Eastern Time.

Edited by Upasya Bhowal