Comment on Bernie Madoff, Financier Who Operated the Largest Ponzi Scheme in History, Dies

Bernard L. Madoff, a boy from Queens who went on to perpetrate one of the most infamous frauds in Wall Street history, died Wednesday in a federal prison, according to multiple reports. He was 82. In a February 2020 court filing, Madoff said he was entering the final stages of kidney disease and asked for an early prison release, which was not granted. Madoff, a financier who began his career in the 1960s, was the reason that generations of Americans learned about the elaborate hoax known as a Ponzi scheme, which involves paying early investors with the funds from later investors, while portraying those payments as actual profits.