Bernard Madoff, Ponzi Scheme | featured news

A federal appeals court rejected a bid by former Bernard Madoff investors, including a charitable foundation for New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, to pursue claims against family members of the imprisoned swindler.

The brother of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for crimes committed in the shadow of his notorious sibling by a judge who said she disbelieved his claims that he did not know about the epic fraud.

The son of Bernard Madoff's longtime accountant, who himself pleaded guilty to securities fraud in the scandal centered on the disgraced financier, has committed suicide in central Ohio, authorities said. Jeremy Friehling, 23, was found dead at his apartment of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday in Columbus, where he was a second-year student at Ohio State's medical school, police there said.

Peter B. Madoff, who was arrested early Friday, pleaded guilty to criminal actions that enabled his brother, Bernard L. Madoff, to carry out the largest Ponzi scheme in history. While Peter Madoff, 66, acknowledged wrongdoing, he said in the hearing at the Federal District Court in Manhattan that he did not know of the fraud that wiped out about $65 billion in paper wealth.

Peter Madoff, the brother of imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff, is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges on Friday, the first family member to do so since the Ponzi schemer's fraud was uncovered in December 2008.

Owners of the New York Mets baseball team have agreed to pay $162 million to settle a lawsuit by the trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard Madoff's fraud.

A judge ruled Monday that the New York Mets' owners owe up to $83 million to the trustee recovering money for Bernard Madoff investors, though he expressed doubt that the trustee will succeed in proving at a trial this month that he's entitled to as much as $300 million more....

A son of disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff called authorities in a panic after receiving a text message he thought was a suicide note from his dad months after his December 2008 fraud scheme arrest, a new book says....

Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has told an interviewer he has terrible remorse and horrible nightmares over his epic fraud, but also said he feels happier in prison than he's felt in 20 years.