Yesterday, a trader who worked for Bernard Madoff for four decades pleaded guilty to fraud charges related to the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. David Kugel said, "I am deeply sorry for my actions and the harm suffered by the victims." more ›

If you were once a stripper who became a society fixture after marrying an accountant to the stars—only for your husband to turn out to be a Ponzi schemer—doesn't it make sense that reality TV is your next move? Diane Passage, wife of convicted fraudster Kenneth Starr, will appear on "Wall Street Wives," and Pasage told the NY Times that the program will be a "a more intellectual 'Real Housewives.'" more ›

At the Securities and Exchange Commission, it seems that totally dropping the ball on Bernard Madoff's massive is not a fire-able offense. The Wall Street Journal reports, "Eight Securities and Exchange Commission employees have been disciplined over their handling of the $50 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, but none were fired, an agency spokesman said Friday. A ninth individual left the agency after receiving notice of a proposed disciplinary action, according to the spokesman." more ›

Another week, another book about Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff! Tomorrow, a new book about the sociopathic man and his family, Truth and Consequence: Life Inside the Madoff Family, by Laurie Sandell—with cooperation from his Ruth Madoff and son Andrew Madoff—will be released. Copies have been obtained in advance by media outlets—the Associated Press got one on Thursday and the Post found one. Revelations include how Madoff was obsessed with making sure his office blinds were perfectly lined up, he sent his son a suicidal-seeming text message, and he was a real charmer with his son's fiancee. more ›

On the heels of his daughter-in-law's damning memoir and his wife's interview with 60 Minutes, Bernard Madoff is effectively in the midst of a PR blitz, since he's granted an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters. ABC News reports, "He said he is relieved to be free from years of fear he'd be discovered as a fraud and finally has overcome thoughts of suicide. Repeatedly throughout the interview he told Walters that he was guilty of the crimes that put him in prison, saying 'I deserved to be punished. I deserved to go to jail.'" more ›

In a new interview with 60 Minutes airing this Sunday, Ruth Madoff claims that she and disgraced husband Bernie Madoff attempted to commit suicide together, shortly after his massive Ponzi scheme was revealed. In the first interview she has given about the Madoff crimes, Ruth told Morley Safer, "I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening. We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said '...I just can't go on anymore.'" more ›

The biggest Ponzi schemer—that we know of—Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison, a far cry from his life between homes all over the world. But apparently he likes being behind bars! His daughter-in-law Stephanie Madoff Mack reveals what he said in a letter to her, "As you can imagine, I am quite the celebrity, and am treated like a Mafia don." more ›

Last December, Mark Madoff committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of his Soho apartment, apparently distraught over repercussions from his father Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme. This Friday, ABC News is running an interview with his widow Stephanie Madoff, and she does not like her father-in-law at all. more ›

After years of bickering, a federal appeals court has ruled that victims of Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme are only entitled to recover the money they actually put into the fake investment fund—not the imagined profits. As Bloomberg News reports, "The federal appeals court in New York said today that trustee Irving Picard can calculate losses by subtracting the amount withdrawn from an investor’s account from the total placed with Madoff, the so-called net investment method." more ›

Has Ruth Madoff finally decided that loyalty to her imprisoned, multi-billion dollar Ponzi-scheming husband is less important than a relationship with her son? The Daily Mail says that she hasn't been to the federal prison in North Carolina to visit Bernard Madoff for six months because "she allegedly seeks reconciliation with her son," Andrew. The Madoffs' other son Mark killed himself last year, apparently distraught over the fallout from his father's scheme and its effect on his own life. more ›

Irving Picard, the trustee in charge of returning the money lost to Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme, is getting ready to write a whole lotta checks. A judge has given his approval for Picard's request to make his first payments to Madoff customers with approved claims. He'll be cutting 1,224 checks this quarter, worth an average of $222,551, from a fund of $2.6 billion dollars. The news comes two-and-a-half years after Madoff's monumental scheme was revealed. more ›

According to a Curbed tipster, a new four-bedroom rental available for just $32,500 at 158 Mercer Street is the former apartment of the late Mark Madoff—expensive rentals are all the rage, don't you know? Curbed says, "The listing doesn't make the connection (we can't blame it for wanting to fly under the radar) and we haven't yet heard back from the broker, but the details line up: Mark Madoff and wife Stephanie purchased the 4,169-square-foot #4M for $6.075 million in 2005. The brokerbabble describes the apartment as having 'a very high end, magnificent renovation.'" Of course, Madoff, son of Ponzi schemer extraordinaire Bernard Madoff, killed himself in his apartment last December. more ›

Besides ruining the Mets and their fans' retirement funds, Bernie Madoff may cause divorces to go on forever. In a lawsuit that has reached the New York Court of Appeals, a man is seeking to revise the terms of his divorce because he lost a considerable amount of money after Madoff's pyramid scheme collapsed. more ›

Iriving Picard, the trustee in charge of finding and returning as much of the $17.3 billion in principal lost in Bernie Madoff's infamous Ponzi scheme, is ready to give some money back. Specifically, Picard is seeking permission to distribute $272 million of the roughly $10 billion he has recouped to 1,224 of Madoff's account holders (so about $222,000 per account). more ›

After years of silence, Bernie Madoff has been giving a very few select interviews the last couple months. We've learned that he thinks the banks were complicit with his massive Ponzi scheme, he feels terrible about what he's done to his family, and he's not quite sure if he's a sociopath or not. In a brand new, intense interview with the Financial Times, Madoff retold the whole twisted story of his rise and fall in the money world, and also claimed to possibly have a new job opportunity: developing ethics courses for some of the elite businesses schools in the country. more ›

It's the oldest story in the book: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy concocts $33 million fraud scheme to impress girl. And now, that boy is going to jail: accountant to the stars Kenneth Starr was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison yesterday for defrauding celebrity clients and his other investors. And it was all for the love of a good former stripper. "I can't believe I did what I did. I lost my moral compass," Starr told the court. more ›

Bernard Madoff is on a roll! After recently chatting with the NY Times about his multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme, Inmate #61727054 at Butner Federal Correctional Complex collect-called New York magazine writer Steve Fishman and said, "I don’t have that much money in my commissary account," before railing, "Does anybody want to hear that I had a successful business and did all these wonderful things for the industry? And got all these awards? And so did my family? I did all of this during the legitimate years. No. You don’t read any of that." more ›

Bernard Madoff has given his first behind-bars interview to NY Times reporter Diane Henriques, who is writing a book about his massive Ponzi scam, and he now says that other institutions—banks and hedge funds he wouldn't name— had to know his too-good-to-be-true returns were all smoke and mirrors. Madoff said, "They had to know. But the attitude was sort of, 'If you’re doing something wrong, we don’t want to know.'" more ›

Last December, the oldest son of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff killed himself in his Soho apartment, emotionally distraught over the cloud his father's dealings had left over his life. Mark Madoff had been estranged from his now-imprisoned father and mother Ruth, and now it's reported that Ruth Madoff was "turned away" from his memorial "by his unforgiving widow, Stephanie." more ›

This is how Irving Picard, the trustee in charge of the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy and locating funds for victims, is earning his fee: Suing JPMorgan Chase for $6.4 billion by way of accusing the bank of being complicit in Madoff's huge Ponzi scheme and ignoring any warnings. The lawsuit, filed last year, was recently unsealed and the NY Times reports, "Senior executives at JPMorgan Chase expressed serious doubts about the legitimacy of Bernard L. Madoff’s investment business more than 18 months before his Ponzi scheme collapsed but continued to do business with him." more ›

Former Bernie Madoff assistant Annette Bongiorno's attempts to have her bail reduced have been successful. A judge today ruled that the $7.6 million in assets the feds had seized "dramatically" reduced the chances that she would flee. more ›

Kenneth Starr, the accountant to the stars who admitted to running a Ponzi scheme with their money, is in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, emailing away to pass the time. Prosecutors revealed his missives to a "mystery woman" to show that Starr should not be granted bail, because he's a flight risk. Why? Well, his brothers would be putting up most of the bail, but this is what Starr wrote about them, "Once I am sentenced I want no contact with them or anyone in their families... [They] wouldn't help when we needed help - they will need me one day and I will not lift a finger - they are mean spirited awful human beings." more ›

A week after Mark Madoff's suicide, there's word of his Ponzi schemer dad's reaction in federal prison. A recent inmate told the Post that Bernie Madoff looked "like someone had shot him in the stomach" after learning his 46-year-old son killed himself. "He was crying, and he was very distraught. No one was messing with him. They knew what had happened." more ›

The estate of Jeffry Picower, the investor who saw 950% returns from Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, has agreed to forfeit $7,206,157,717 of Picower's ill-gotten gains and give it back to victims. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, "Today’s truly historic settlement with the estate of Jeffry Picower is a game-changer for Madoff’s victims. By returning every penny of the $7.2 billion her late husband received from BLMIS to help those who have suffered most, Barbara Picower has done the right thing." This is the biggest settlement for Madoff victims thus far. more ›