It’s been more than six years since the Madoff Investment Scandal broke out and after all these years and 15 convictions, the scandal has finally come to halt.
The Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme, that cost his investors around $50 billion, has been closed after Irwin Lipkin was sentenced to six months in prison and 18 months of home detention last Wednesday. The defendant was convicted of falsifying financial documents that were used in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
Lipkin, aged 77, was the last of 16 defendants who were convicted and sentenced in the infamous case of fraud where the mastermind Bernie Madoff received a 150-year prison sentence. With the then ongoing court hearing on the scandal, the 77 year old fraudster was asked to give up his Florida home, a Rolex watch, and a painting by the late comedian Red Skelton.
The ex-defendant Lipkin could have been sent to prison for 10 years but U.S. District Judge Laura T. Swain reduced his sentence considering his health problems. As per reports, the 77 year old suffers from depression and heart disease.
The final verdict was finally made after years of postponing and lingering. The case took so long come to the conclusion due to Lipkin’s health reasons. The convicted defendant pleaded guilty in November 2012 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, falsifying records, and making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also clearly admitted to the authorities that he was allegedly unaware of Madoff’s $17 billion Ponzi scheme.
According to various media reports, besides Lipkin, his son Eric was also sentenced to nine months of home detention and 200 hours of community service for his part in the scheme. While Lipkin was not so willing to co-operate with the authorities in the beginning but his son easily cooperated with them.
Bernie Madoff who was a former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier pleaded guilty on March 12, 2009 to 11 federal felonies, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, making false statements, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and making false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).He was convicted of defrauding his clients of almost $65 billion over the past 20 years. The Madoff scandal is the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
Madoff took sole responsibility for all the fraud charges and pleaded guilty to all the charges and didn’t plea bargain. If we are to believe the media speculations, then Madoff pleaded guilty because he refused to cooperate with the authorities and didn’t spill names of any associates and conspirators who were involved with him in the Ponzi scheme.
Now that the final defender has been jailed, the six years long case has finally closed. But, Madoff’s wife, who was reportedly part of the Ponzi scheme as well, is still out free. The couple had two sons and both of them are dead. Mark committed suicide at the age of 46 in 2010, just two years after his father’s arrest and their second son Andrew died from mantle cell lymphoma at the age of 48 last year. Looks like the family of the culprit Madoff met as sad ending.
The fraudster Madoff net worth as revealed by the court was around $17 billion before the incarceration but after the case, it has dropped to $832 million.