what happen to the victims of a ponzi scheme

апреля 11, 2022 Отправить комментарий

December 11, 2008, was the beginning of a financial nightmare for thousands of people after word got out that financier Bernie Madoff was arrested for running the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

While the media initially touted Madoff's fraud equally having run upward of $50 billion, prosecutors would afterward raise the estimate to $65 billion among his 37,000 victims, who ranged from prominent figures in business and media and hardworking, everyday people to nonprofit charities.

Many of his victims emerged to share their stories equally office of a larger narrative of the shocking fraud, information technology was his glory clients who made the biggest headlines.

Some public figures chose to stay relatively placidity about their association with Madoff. Before her decease in 2016, Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor had reportedly lost between $vii to $10 million from investing with the coin manager, while Hollywood bigwig Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation likewise took a substantial hit, although the dollar amount was never disclosed.

Still, other prominent figures decided to speak out about their fiscal losses and what they learned from the experience. Among them are actors and couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Dreamworks Animation chief executive Jefferey Katzenberg, actor John Malkovich, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and broadcaster Larry King.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Sedgwick and actor Kevin Bacon attend a screening of "The Edge of Seventeen" at Regal LA Live Stadium 14 on November 9, 2016 in Los Angeles, California — Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon at a screening of "The Edge of Seventeen" on November nine, 2016, in Los Angeles, California

Photograph: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Known to be a low-primal Hollywood couple, actors Bacon and Sedgwick became front and middle news when the scandal bankrupt, as they had been one of the start celebrities known to have reportedly lost millions of dollars investing with Madoff.

"I see him as a sick man," Sedgwick told Piers Morgan on CNN in 2012. "And I see united states as adults who fabricated a option. And I see a lot of people who are so much worse off than we are..."

Years later, Salary echoed his married woman's sentiments about the scandal. "It was a bad day," Bacon admitted to The Guardian during an interview in 2017. "Just pretty speedily we were able to come across all the things we had as opposed to any we lost, and those are the biggest cliches: children, health, dearest, a nice abode. So we got through information technology together. I don't think about Madoff, like, at all."

He too added that the "real victims" were those who lost their entire life savings. "I think there'south a proficient cautionary tale there, to exist cognizant of what'south happening with your money."

Jeffrey Katzenberg

Just like Bacon and Sedgwick, Dreamworks Animation executive Katzenberg, known for producing hits like theShrek and Kung Fu Panda franchises, endured a substantial fiscal loss, which he described equally "painful and humiliating." Although he likewise refused to discuss the actual dollar amount that was taken from him and his charitable organization, Marilyn & Jeffrey Katzenberg Foundation, the charity had estimated assets of over $22 million before the scandal broke.

The Los Angeles Times would afterwards uncover that Katzenberg had lost $20 million. Both he and Spielberg shared the same business director, who made investments with Madoff on their behalf.

"The first time I heard the name Bernie Madoff was virtually 3 weeks ago," Katzenberg told reporters in January 2009. "What it has washed to other people is terrible. It'due south destroyed many people'due south lives. People that I know."

Elie Wiesel

Before his death in 2016, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wiesel was another famous figure taken in by Madoff'due south criminal enterprise. And when the news hit, Wiesel didn't take the loss lightly.

Describing Madoff as "one of the greatest scoundrels, thieves, liars, criminals," Wiesel and his wife, Marion, had lost their life savings of $12 1000000, along with $15 million from their nonprofit organisation, Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

"Could I forgive him? No," Wiesel told a media console in New York Metropolis in 2009 regarding Madoff. "To forgive, first of all, would mean that he would come on his knees and ask for forgiveness. He wouldn't do that."

Wiesel explained that a wealthy trusted friend, who had been friends with Madoff for five decades, introduced the two of them. After Wiesel met with Madoff multiple times, he went on to go communication from other financial experts before entrusting his personal finances with Madoff.

In 2012 he reflected back on his feel during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. "[My married woman and I] looked at each other, and our reaction was, 'Nosotros have seen worse,'" Wiesel said. "Both she and I have seen worse."

Once news spread about his foundation's financial troubles, Wiesel said he was taken aback from the public's reaction.

"Suddenly, we began receiving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of letters and donations, pocket-size donations, from all over America, Jews and not-Jews," Wiesel told Oprah. "The American people are and then generous. … We received hundreds of them, and that helped us."

John Malkovich

When role player Malkovich lost his investment of $2 million dollars to Madoff, he — like fellow actors Bacon and Sedgwick — put his problems into perspective.

"I don't view it as a negative experience…," he told Details mag in 2013. "To me it was, 'Y'all retrieve you have a bunch of coin – and yous don't.' So what? Nearly people don't (accept a lot of money). I think it kind of reconnected me to how well-nigh people alive all the time. And, unlike a lot of people that were involved in the Madoff matter, I could simply go back to work, and it was fine."

So would he say anything to Madoff if he had the opportunity? Malkovich told Vanity Fair, in his classic cool demeanor, not particularly.

"I only met Mr. Madoff once, many years ago. He seemed very pleasant. But, you know, I don't think I'd have much to impart," he told the magazine in 2013. "For me, in all honesty, it was a practiced life lesson."

In the terminate, Malkovich reportedly received $670 thousand of his investment back.

Larry King

King met Madoff through his babyhood friend Fred Wilpon, owner of the New York Mets. At the time, King and his wife were looking for a reputable investment house, and Wilpon suggested he look into Madoff but warned Male monarch that the coin manager was known for being selective about his clientele. Male monarch experienced Madoff's choosiness immediate, as the latter accepted Male monarch into his business firm simply not King's blood brother.

When Madoff was arrested in 2008, the broadcasting fable suffered a $700K loss but thankfully, was able to recover it within a few years.

"If I could interview i person on the planet, information technology'd be Bernie Madoff and the obvious [question] would be 'Why? Why did y'all practice this to people?'" King said.

King's friend, Wilpon, would come out of the Madoff scandal much worse off, taking a hit of $500 million.

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Source: https://www.biography.com/news/bernie-madoff-famous-victims