For years, Bernie Madoff is a Wall Street superstar. Viewed as a pillar of the investment banking world, he has a multitude of celebrity and high profile clients. But that all comes to a screeching halt with his Dec. 11, 2008 arrest that unveils a decades-long, $65 billion Ponzi scheme, viewed as the biggest financial swindle in US History.
TIMELINE:
• 1960 - Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities is founded. Madoff uses $5,000 he made as a lifeguard to help start the business.
• Early December 2008 Madoff tells an employee of his firm that clients want to redeem about $7 billion and he is struggling to free up the money
• December 9, 2008 Madoff tells a staff member he wants to pay bonuses out before the year ends, nearly two months earlier than planned.
• December 10, 2008 Madoff confesses to employees of his company that the asset management portion of his firm is actually a large Ponzi scheme. He also states that he will turn himself over to authorities.
• December 11, 2008 Madoff is arrested for securities fraud for operating a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme from his investment advisory business. He is released on $10 million bail.
• December 12, 2008 - A federal court in Manhattan issues a temporary order freezing Madoff's assets.
• December 17, 2008 Madoff is placed on house arrest.
• March 12, 2009: Madoff pleads guilty to eleven felony charges including: fraud, money laundering, perjury, and false filings with the SEC.
• March 20, 2009: An appeals court rules that Madoff will remain in jail until sentencing. • June 29, 2009 Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison.
• December 11, 2010 Mark Madoff commits suicide in his home, exactly two years to the day after his father is arrested. He was 46 years old.
• February 15, 2011 In an interview from prison, Madoff tells a New York Times reporter that some banks and hedge funds "had to know."
• June 4, 2011 An auction of Madoff’s personal property belonging to Madoff gets $500,000. The total recovery from the Madoffs has been approximately $24 million in property sales and $80 million in cash assets.
• September 20, 2012 Trustee Irving Picard announces that victims of Madoff's Ponzi scheme will receive another $2.5 billion in reimbursement of their stolen funds. This brings the total amount returned to investors to $3.6 billion.
• January 22, 1014: An email from Madoff reaches the press which he states he had a heart attack in December of 2013 and that he now has stage 4 kidney disease.