Investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC lost billions of dollars in the

Madoff investment scandal The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud discovered in late 2008. In December of that year, Bernie Madoff, the former NASDAQ chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities ...

, a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

conducted by

Bernard Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ s ...

. The amount missing from client accounts, over two thirds of which were fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. The court-appointed

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...

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estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion, and much of that money has been returned. The 162-page list of clients (without investment amount), filed in

U.S. Bankruptcy Court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy c ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, was made public on February 4, 2009. Some of the clients profited. Thousands of individual investors of Fairfield Greenwich, J. Ezra Merkin's

Ascot Partners Ascot Partners is a hedge fund that was a feeder fund to Bernie Madoff. It is headed by money manager and financier J. Ezra Merkin as general partner. It was managed by Gabriel Capital Corporation, of which Merkin was chairman. Among its inv ...

, and Chais Investments are not included. Several newspapers and news services, including ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', compiled lists of these investors during the first few months of the scandal, including fabricated gains in the amounts lost. These lists may include double-counting; for example, they may count investments by

feeder fund A feeder fund is an investment fund which does almost all of its investments through a ''master fund'' via a master-feeder relationship. It is a situation similar to a fund of funds A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding ...

s into Madoff Securities, as well as investments made into the feeder funds.

References

External links

List of banks, individuals, and charities who claimed losses due to Madoff, and dollar amount lost, at ''The New York Times'' (Retrieved January 24, 2009)
* , Last updated March 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Madoff investors 2008 in economics Madoff investment scandal * Finance lists Lists of victims of crimes