Bernie Madoff died in prison, his sons' estates gave up their fortunes, and the trustee recovered $15.5 billion

Bernard Madoff's investment advisory business in New York was a Ponzi scheme. His sons, Mark and Andrew, ran the firm's trading businesses. They have said they did not know about the fraud and went to the authorities as soon as their father confessed to them; he was arrested two days later, in December 2008. He pleaded guilty, and Judge Denny Chin sentenced him to 150 years. In June 2009 prosecutors agreed that marshals could sell the Madoffs' assets and that his wife, Ruth, could keep $2.5 million. On the second anniversary of his father's arrest, in December 2010, Mark Madoff hanged himself in his Manhattan apartment. Andrew died of cancer in 2014. The court-appointed trustee, Irving Picard, sued both sons' estates, saying they had spent more than $150 million of client money. In June 2017 the estates settled for $23 million, handing over all cash and business interests; Mark's family kept $1.75 million and Andrew's $2 million, and the estates dropped nearly $100 million in claims. In 2019 Ruth Madoff, who was never charged, paid $594,000 and agreed to give up her remaining assets when she dies. Madoff died at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, in April 2021, aged 82. As of 23 October 2026 the trustee reports $15.509 billion recovered and $14.799 billion distributed to customers.