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Bernie Madoff Dies In Prison

(Photo by Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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Notorious Ponzi schemer and Wall Street banker Bernie Madoff reportedly died Wednesday at the age of 82.

Madoff requested clemency in February 2020 after receiving a diagnosis of late stage kidney disease. He was serving 150 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars from clients of his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.

Madoff was convicted of eleven felonies in 2009, including securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He forfeited $170 billion in assets, and a victim fund has distributed $2.7 billion to investors who were defrauded in his scheme, according to Investopedia. (RELATED: John Brennan Compares Trump To Bernie Madoff: ‘Remarkably Unethical’)

A federal court ruled in September 2020 that investors who made money in his scheme would have to pay back their profits, even if they did not break any laws. Former New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, a prominent investor in the Madoff fund and a close friend of the disgraced financier, agreed to pay up to $162 million as part of a settlement with the Madoff victims fund, although that number was reduced as more money was recovered.

The majority of people who lost money in Madoff’s scheme did so after their banks invested in the Madoff Investment Securities, according to The Wall Street Journal.