Bernie Madoff

Born in Brooklyn in 1938, Madoff graduated from Hofstra and founded a penny stock brokerage in 1960 that grew into Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. The firm had two sides: a legitimate, high-profile stock brokerage that became the sixth-largest market maker in S&P 500 stocks, and an asset management unit he kept exclusive and quiet. That second unit was a lie. On December 10, 2008, his sons Mark and Andrew went to authorities after Madoff told them the asset management business was "one big lie" - a Ponzi scheme he claimed started in the early 1990s, though an ex-trader later testified to faking records since the early 1970s. The FBI arrested him the next day. He pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies in March 2009, and on June 29 was sentenced to 150 years. Client accounts showed almost $65 billion missing; actual losses were estimated at $18 billion. Mark hanged himself exactly two years after the arrest, brother Peter got 10 years in prison, and Andrew died of lymphoma in 2014. Madoff died in federal prison in North Carolina on April 14, 2021, of chronic kidney disease.