Bernard Lawrence Madoff was born on the 29th April 1938 in Queens, New York City, USA of Polish, Austrian and Romanian ancestry. He is perhaps best known for being a former businessman and banker, who worked as the chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. However, he is infamous for perpetrating the largest fraud in US history as the operator of a Ponzi scheme which is estimated to have amounted to $65 billion. He was active from the 1960s to the late 2000s, when he was arrested.
Have you ever wondered how rich is Bernard Madoff? According to authoritative sources, it is estimated that the overall size of Madoff’s net worth is now minus $17 billion as of early 2016, as a consequence of his fraudulent activities over 40 years.
Bernard Madoff Net Worth -$17 Billion
Bernard Madoff was raised in a Jewish family with two siblings; the son of Ralph, who was a stockbroker and plumber, and Sylvia Madoff, who worked as a homemaker. He attended Far Rockaway High School, then enrolled at the University of Alabama in 1956, where he became a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity. After a year he transferred to Hofstra University, from which he earned a BA degree in Political Science in 1960. Besides that, he also briefly attended Brooklyn Law School.
The same year he enrolled at Brooklyn Law School, Bernard started his own Company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, marking the beginning of his professional career. From its inception, the company served as a penny stock trader, with an initial investment of $5,000, which Bernard earned from his previous job as a lifeguard. His company soon started to grow, with a little help of his father-in-law investing $50,000, and also he mentioned the firm to some of his friends, who all contributed financially to the firm.
Little by little, Bernard`s net worth grew, and over the years it became one of the top market traders on Wall Street, making it the main source of his net worth.
However, it all fell apart, when his sons informed authorities of Bernard`s conduct of Ponzi scheme, which began in early 1990s. Bernard was arrested on the 11th December 2008 and after a trial, he was sentenced to a 150 years in prison. According to sources, it was estimated that the total amount missing from clients’ accounts was as much as $65 billion. Nevertheless, before his scheme was unraveled, Bernard also served as the non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market.
Regarding Bernard Madoff’s personal life, he married Ruth Alpern in 1959 and the couple had two sons; both have passed away since the fraud was exposed. Bernard was a well-known philanthropist – with client’s money of course – who founded ”The Madoff Family Foundation” with his wife and worked with other organization. Bernard is serving his penalty at Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, where he suffered a heart attack in 2013, and was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). He had residences on Upper East Side, Manhattan, in Roslyn, New York, and also in Palm Beach, Florida.
