Svindlaren Bernie Madoff döende – ansöker om nåd

Bernard Lawrence Madoff (; born April 29, 1938) is an American former market maker, investment advisor and financier who is currently serving a federal prison sentence for offenses related to a massive Ponzi scheme. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, the confessed operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in world history, and the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. Prosecutors estimated the fraud to be worth $64.8 billion based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008.Madoff founded a penny stock brokerage in 1960 which eventually grew into Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. He served as its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed "specialist" firms by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers.At the firm, he employed his brother Peter Madoff as senior managing director and chief compliance officer, Peter's daughter Shana Madoff as the firm's rules and compliance officer and attorney, and his now deceased sons Andrew and Mark. Peter was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Mark committed suicide by hanging exactly two years after his father's arrest. Andrew died of lymphoma on September 3, 2014.On December 10, 2008, Madoff's sons 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, FBI agents 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. The Madoff investment scandal defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said that he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s, but federal investigators believe that the fraud began as early as the mid-1980s and may have begun as far back as the 1970s. Those charged with recovering the missing money believe that the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts was almost $65 billion, including fabricated gains. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed–at his age, effectively a life sentence.In Febrary 2020 his lawyer filed for compassionate release from prison on the claim that he was suffering from a terminal illness and had less than 18 months to live.

Ponzibedrägeri (engelska: Ponzi scheme) är en form av investeringsbedrägeri som attraherar investerare genom att utlova hög avkastning, men som istället för att generera verklig avkastning på insatt kapital använder detta till utbetalningar och för att hålla bedrägeriet igång. Ytligt sett kan ett ponzibedrägeri tyckas vara ett slags pyramidspel, men det finns flera avgörande skillnader. I ett pyramidspel är varje deltagare beroende av att själv rekrytera nya deltagare för att kunna täcka sin egen insats, men i ett ponzibedrägeri erbjuds deltagarna avkastning utan några rekryteringskrav. Ett pyramidspel växer snabbt i omfattning och det är de som anslutit sig sist som blir de största förlorarna, medan ett ponzibedrägeri i värsta fall kan växa i omfattning under lång tid och endast de som dragit sig ur före kollapsen kan undgå att bli förlorare. Folklustspelet Ebberöds bank där man ger åtta procent i ränta på inlåning och tar fyra procent i utlåning beskriver i grunden ett klassiskt ponzibedrägeri. Då kostnaderna för inlåning aldrig går att täcka med inkomster från utlåning av samma kapital uppstår ett underskott som betalas med insatta medel. Förskingringen av spararnas pengar börjar redan vid den första insättningen och vare sig löftet om avkastning eller möjligheten att återfå insatta medel kan infrias till samtliga sparare.