BP Editors
Ponzi schemes were invented back when people were still named Ponzi, but that doesn’t stop people from falling for them today. Bernie Madoff essentially became rich via the Ponzi scheme, using it from the 1970’s to the late Aughts unchecked. The meat of the scheme is so simple and criminal it’s shocking it could work for so long. Madoff would take investors money, and instead of investing it, stick it in a bank account. Then he and his team of wizards would make up returns the money “should” earn based on investments not made. When people wanted their money, or some of it, Madoff would give them pieces of the accounts he’d set up. When Madoff wanted something, he would take money out of the accounts. The accounts grew thin in the 2000’s, and by 2009 Madoff plead guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to the whole plot. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison. He was worth an estimated $800 million of stolen cash. In 2010, Madoff’s son Mark hung himself inside his NYC apartment.
