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📉 Bernie Madoff

People in the Madoff case — court and trustee roles

Six figures who appear throughout the Madoff dockets: the defendant, the judge, the trustee, a whistleblower, a cooperating aide, and the brother who pleaded guilty.

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Quick answers

What did Bernard Madoff plead guilty to?

On 12 March 2009 he pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to eleven felony counts, among them securities fraud, investment-adviser fraud, mail and wire fraud, money laundering, false statements, perjury, false SEC filings, and theft from an employee benefit plan.

How long was the prison sentence?

Judge Denny Chin imposed 150 years on 29 June 2009, the statutory maximum on the counts as grouped. Madoff died in federal custody on 14 April 2021 at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina.

How much money was involved?

Customer statements at collapse implied about $65 billion including fictitious gains. Court and trustee materials later put net principal lost near $17–20 billion. Forfeiture paperwork used a much larger paper figure; SIPA recoveries are tracked against allowed principal claims.

Did the SEC examine the firm before 2008?

Yes. The 2009 inspector-general report documents multiple tips and examinations, including submissions associated with Harry Markopolos, that did not result in stopping the advisory fraud. The report is a public critique of those reviews.

What is the Picard trusteeship?

After the firm entered SIPA liquidation, the Bankruptcy Court appointed Irving H. Picard as trustee to marshal assets and distribute them to allowed customers. His reports and adversary complaints are the main civil record of who received what and when.

Were other people convicted?

Yes. Among them, Frank DiPascali, who had overseen much of the advisory paperwork, pleaded guilty in 2009. Peter Madoff, the defendant’s brother and former chief compliance officer, pleaded guilty in 2012 and received a ten-year sentence. Other employees and outside counterparties faced criminal or civil cases.

2008New York, United Statesconvicted

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2008

The Madoff file is crowded with feeder-fund managers and counterparties. The six names below are the ones the criminal and SIPA records return to most often.

Roles here are taken from pleas, sentencing transcripts, trustee papers, and the SEC inspector-general report — not from memoir claims.

People

Bernard L. Madoff

Defendant

Founder of the firm. Arrested 11 December 2008; pleaded guilty 12 March 2009; sentenced to 150 years on 29 June 2009; died in custody in 2021.

Denny Chin

U.S. District Judge

Southern District of New York judge who took the 2009 plea and imposed the 150-year sentence, citing the scale of the harm and the need for general deterrence.

Irving H. Picard

SIPA trustee

Court-appointed trustee who reconstructed transfers, sued recipients of alleged fictitious profits, and reported recoveries to the bankruptcy court.

Harry Markopolos

Independent analyst

Quant who repeatedly told the SEC the reported returns were implausible. His submissions are exhibits in the 2009 OIG report on why examinations failed.

Frank DiPascali

Cooperating aide

Longtime employee who pleaded guilty in 2009 to helping fabricate the advisory record. His cooperation informed later employee and civil cases.

Peter Madoff

Brother; compliance officer

Former chief compliance officer. Pleaded guilty in 2012 to conspiracy and falsifying records and received a ten-year sentence.

Sons Mark and Andrew Madoff reported their father to authorities in December 2008; they were not charged in the criminal fraud. Mark died in 2010; Andrew died in 2014.

Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.

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