9. Madoff Investment Securities LLC Ponzi Scheme
Year: 1960-2008
Approx. Amount: $50 Billion*
Company / Person Involved: Bernard Madoff
While serving part of his 150-year sentence, Bernard ‘Bernie’ Madoff passed away at the age of 82. Why was Bernie given 150 years behind bars? Because the Ponzi scheme he orchestrated is among the largest in history, amounting to $50 billion in losses, and it was his own family who ended up turning him in.
Madoff Investment Securities LLC Ponzi Scheme ©Stephen Chernin / Gettyimages.com
In 2008, Bernard Madoff’s own son came clean to authorities about what was really going on in the family business. The securities firm was all a scam. Madoff had been hiding the losses incurred through hedge fund investments by using later investors’ money to pay earlier investors when it was time to withdraw.