The Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) is entering the 10th and final installment of its $131.4 million asset distribution.
The funds were made available through the U.S. government in connection with the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) fraud scheme court decision.
Madoff defrauded thousands of victims worldwide, and the Justice Department report stated that this decade of work to find and resolve complex financial transactions has reached reimbursement or restitution of 94% of fraud losses.
“Today’s distribution represents an unprecedented conclusion of victim compensation from civil forfeiture actions related to the Madoff scheme with more than $4 billion repaid to over 40,000 victims,” said Assistant Director in Charge James E. Dennehy of the FBI New York Field Office. “These victims implicitly trusted Madoff with their investments only to ultimately lose significant monies to his selfish plan.
MVF enters 10th and final multi-million stage
In 2009, Madoff was sentenced to a century and a half in prison for a level of unprecedented fraud he perpetrated as the chairman of his company BLMIS, to steal billions from his clients and the ripple effect was felt through the small businesses of America and internationally.
“The Criminal Division, through its Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), is proud to administer the department’s remission program to compensate victims using forfeited assets,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
The Justice Department reported that more than 23,000 victims will receive payments in the United States and in other nations. The actions of the Madoff scheme impacted a reported 40,000 victims (most were small investors) who lost less than $500,000 in the fraud.
The final installment of the ten individual decade-long distributions brings the total to “$4.3 billion from forfeited funds to 40,930 victims in 127 countries” for the financial loses at the hands of Madoff.
Wible concluded, “The unprecedented scope and complexity of the Madoff remission process shows the power of forfeiture to recover assets and to compensate victims — a primary goal of the department’s Asset Forfeiture Program. This 10th and final distribution, led by MLARS’ dedicated victim compensation team, achieves the department’s goal of compensating victims by returning over $4 billion in forfeited assets to more than 40,000 victims of Madoff’s crimes and achieving nearly full recovery for these victims.”
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