Bernie Madoff ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history for over two decades from a respectable Wall Street address, defrauding approximately 37,000 investors across 136 countries out of an estimated $65 billion in paper wealth. As a former chairman of NASDAQ and a trusted figure in Jewish philanthropic circles, Madoff’s firm attracted money from charities, pension funds, banks, and wealthy families — all of whom believed he possessed a uniquely profitable trading strategy he refused to explain. When the scheme unraveled in December 2008, Madoff confessed to his sons and was arrested the next morning; he died in federal prison in 2021 while serving a 150-year sentence.
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