NEW YORK -- Bernard Madoff, the architect of a securities swindle that burned thousands of investors, outfoxed regulators and earned him a 150-year prison term, died behind bars early Wednesday. He was 82.
Madoff's death at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C., was confirmed by his lawyer and the Bureau of Prisons. His death was because of natural causes, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Last year, Madoff's lawyers unsuccessfully asked a court to release him from prison during the coronavirus pandemic, saying he suffered from end-stage renal disease and other chronic medical conditions.
For decades, Madoff had an image as a self-made financial guru whose Midas touch defied market fluctuations. A former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, he attracted a devoted legion of investment clients -- from Florida retirees to celebrities such as film director Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.
But his investment advisory business was exposed in 2008 as a Ponzi scheme that wiped out people's fortunes and ruined charities. He became so hated that he wore a bullet-resistant vest to court.
The fraud was believed to be the largest in Wall Street's history.
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Over the years, court-appointed trustees laboring to unwind the scheme have recovered more than $14 billion of an estimated $17.5 billion that investors put into Madoff's business. At the time of Madoff's arrest, fake account statements were telling clients they had holdings worth more than $60 billion.
Madoff pleaded guilty in March 2009 to securities fraud and other charges, saying he was "deeply sorry and ashamed."
As he was led off to jail in handcuffs, there was scattered applause from angry investors in the courtroom.
"He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no values," former investor Tom Fitzmaurice told the judge at the sentencing. "He cheated his victims out of their money so he and his wife ... could live a life of luxury beyond belief."
A judge issued a forfeiture order stripping Madoff of all of his personal property, including real estate, investments and $80 million in assets that his wife, Ruth, had claimed were hers. The order left her with $2.5 million.
The scandal also exacted a personal toll on the family: One of his sons, Mark, killed himself on the second anniversary of his father's arrest in 2010. Madoff's brother, Peter, who helped run the business, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012, despite claims that he was in the dark about his brother's misdeeds.
Madoff's other son, Andrew, died from cancer at age 48. Ruth is still living.
Jerry Reisman, an attorney for about three dozen Madoff victims, said he'd spoken to several after Madoff's death.
"Some of them are saying they're enjoying this day," he said. "No one sees this as a great loss. No one is going to mourn Bernie Madoff. They are happy they have survived him."
Madoff was born in 1938 in a lower-middle-class Jewish neighborhood in Queens. In the financial world, the story of his rise to prominence -- how he left for Wall Street with Peter in 1960 with a few thousand dollars saved from working as a lifeguard and installing sprinklers -- became legend.
In the 1980s, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities occupied three floors of a midtown Manhattan high-rise. There, with his brother and later two sons, he ran a legitimate business as middlemen between the buyers and sellers of stocks.
Madoff used his expertise to help launch Nasdaq, the first electronic stock exchange, and became so respected that he advised the Securities and Exchange Commission on the system. But what the SEC never found out was that, in a separate office kept under lock and key, Madoff was secretly spinning a web of phantom wealth by using cash from new investors to pay returns to old ones.
The ugly truth is no securities were ever bought or sold. Madoff's chief financial officer, Frank DiPascali, said in a guilty plea in 2009 that the statements detailing trades were "all fake."
Like many of his clients, Madoff and his wife enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. They had a Manhattan apartment, an $11 million estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and a $4 million home on Long Island. There was yet another home in the south of France, private jets and a yacht.
It all came crashing down in the winter of 2008 with a dramatic confession. In a meeting with his sons, he confided that his business was "all just one big lie."
After the meeting, a lawyer for the family contacted regulators, who alerted the federal prosecutors and the FBI. Madoff was in a bathrobe when two FBI agents arrived at his door unannounced on a December morning. He invited them in, then confessed after being asked "if there's an innocent explanation," a criminal complaint said.
Madoff responded: "There is no innocent explanation."
A trustee was appointed to recover funds -- sometimes by suing hedge funds and other large investors who came out ahead. The effort is ongoing and to date has returned around 70% of lost funds to investors.
More than 15,400 claims against Madoff were filed.
At Madoff's sentencing in 2009, wrathful former clients stood to demand the maximum punishment. Madoff spoke in a monotone for about 10 minutes, referring to his monumental fraud as a "problem," "an error of judgment" and "a tragic mistake."
He claimed that he and his wife were tormented, saying she "cries herself to sleep every night, knowing all the pain and suffering I have caused."
"That's something I live with, as well," he said.
