MONSTER OF WALL STREET DEFRAUDED $64,000,000,000 OUT OF HOLLYWOOD CELEBS

Through a 17-year Ponzi scheme, a financial pioneer defrauded Hollywood celebrities of tens of billions of dollars. In 1971, Bernie Madoff created the Nasdaq, the first electronic stock exchange. However, the New York native's achievements were overshadowed when he resorted to fraud and became well-known for masterminding the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. Ponzi schemes are defined as "an unsustainable business model that will grind to a halt once the operator fails to attract new investors or when current investors attempt to get their money back," in case you were wondering.

Madoff, also known as the "Monster of Wall Street," deceived people into thinking their money had been invested legitimately for nearly 20 years by creating complex account statements that gave the impression that they were earning consistent returns. In actuality, however, no investment was ever made, and the original investors were only compensated with funds from subsequent investors.

Frank DiPascali, Madoff's account manager who had worked with him since 1975, said the fraud had been going on "for as long as I remember," despite Madoff's claim that his scheme began in the 1990s.

Madoff was able to draw in thousands of investors, including well-known figures from Hollywood like Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Steven Spielberg, and Larry King.

In all, he embezzled about $64 billion, depleting some people's life savings. Through his nonprofit organization, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel invested $15 million in Madoff.

There were disastrous repercussions from the Ponzi scheme and its aftermath. Many people committed suicide, such as William Foxton OBE, a former British soldier who, after losing all of his family's savings, shot himself in a park in 2009. After his company invested $7 billion in Madoff's scheme, hedge fund executive Charles Murphy leapt from a 24-story window, and René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet committed suicide after losing $1.5 billion of his client's money.

After the fraud was finally discovered in 2008, Madoff entered guilty pleas to several felonies, including securities fraud and money laundering, during his 2009 trial. Following federal sentencing guidelines, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison and ordered to make billions of dollars in restitution.

Following his court appearance, Madoff apologized to his victims, saying, "As some of my victims have pointed out, I have left a legacy of shame to my family and my grandchildren."I will spend the rest of my life in this environment. I apologize; I understand that doesn't help.

"This is a clear indication that Mr. Madoff's actions were extremely heinous," said Sentencing Judge Denny Chin. Only about $4 billion had been given back to about 40,000 victims as of 2022.

On April 14, 2021, Madoff passed away at the age of 82 in a prison hospital.