Bernie Madoff Death Sentence Imminent After Decades of Elusive Justice We weren’t able to create a summary for you. Refresh your page to try again. Peter Madoff (and Andrew Madoff, before his death ) remained the targets of a tax fraud investigation by federal prosecutors, according to The Wall Street Journal. Peter Madoff (and Andrew Madoff, before his death ) remained the targets of a tax fraud investigation by federal prosecutors, according to The Wall Street Journal. Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier and con artist who was the admitted mastermind of the largest-known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. BernieMadoff: Who He Was, How His Ponzi Scheme Worked 22 of 31. Madoff, onetime chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and a fixture on Wall Street for decades, shocked the world in December 2008 when he confessed his investment business was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. BernieMadoff victims say his death reopens 'profoundly painful' wounds but doesn't bring them any closure and many were never repaid: Disgraced financier dies in prison aged 82 from kidney disease. BernieMadoff - Death, Sons & Ponzi Scheme - Biography. Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, died early Wednesday, April 14, 2021, in a federal prison, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File). BernieMadoffdead: Ponzi schemer was 82 - Los Angeles Times.