Bernard Madoff

Bernard Lawrence Madoff (April 29, 1938 – April 14, 2021) was an American financier, con artist, and stock broker who was the admitted mastermind of the largest-known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units: a stock brokerage and an asset management business; the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Laurelton, Madoff graduated from Hofstra University, and founded a penny stock brokerage in 1960, which eventually grew into Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. He was the company's chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. That year, the firm was the sixth-largest market maker in S&P 500 stocks. While the stock brokerage part of the business had a public profile, Madoff tried to keep his asset management business low profile and exclusive. At the firm, he employed his brother Peter as senior managing director and chief compliance officer, Peter's daughter Shana as the firm's rules and compliance officer and attorney, and his sons Mark and Andrew Madoff. Mark hanged himself in 2010, exactly two years after his father's arrest, Peter was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012, and Andrew died of lymphoma on September 3, 2014.

On December 10, 2008, Madoff's sons Mark and Andrew told authorities that their father had confessed to them that the asset management unit of his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme, and quoted him as saying that it was "one big lie". The following day, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had previously conducted multiple investigations into his business practices but had not uncovered the massive fraud. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme.