Bernie Madoff managed to keep the biggest Ponzi scheme in history going for decades, but, when the FBI finally came knocking at his door on Dec. 11, 2008, he told them he had been expecting them, newly released FBI files show.
Madoff told the agents that he had been preparing to turn himself in before they got there, as he had decided he “just couldn’t go on,” the files released by the FBI in response to a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.
But he wasn’t motivated by feelings of guilt for the thousands of clients whose savings he had decimated through his fraud. “I’m broke,” he said, making it impossible to keep his scam afloat.
Madoff died in federal prison in April 2021 at the age of 82 after 11 years behind bars marked by rapidly declining health before he succumbed to kidney failure.
When Madoff was first arrested it was estimated that the losses related to his scam were as high as $65 billion, with some 41,000 clients having lost money. That figure was later substantially lowered to around $18 billion when phony paper profits were deducted from the total. At the time of his death, investigators said they had managed to recover $14.4 billion of it.
Madoff had revealed the stunning scam to his sons, Mark and Andrew, the day before his arrest, and they had contacted the FBI. The next morning at 8:03 a.m., agents appeared at the door of the Upper East Side penthouse that Madoff shared with his wife, Ruth.
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