WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 6, 2025 - The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) recognizes the Department of Justice’s Madoff Victims Fund (MVF) on its successful final distribution of funds to Bernard Madoff victims. As announced on December 30, 2024, the MVF made its tenth and final distribution to victims of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, bringing its total distribution to over $4.3 billion.
Separately, a 16th distribution to Madoff customers is expected next month by the Trustee appointed under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA). With the support of SIPC, the Trustee continues to recover and return funds lost by customers in the liquidation proceeding of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS).
Josephine Wang, President and Chief Executive Officer of SIPC, said, “The successful efforts of the MVF under the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Program are another positive outcome for victims of Bernard Madoff. SIPC congratulates the Department of Justice (DOJ) on its final payment to Madoff customers, who have benefited from the combined efforts of SIPC and the DOJ to achieve an astonishingly successful recovery. While the DOJ has maximized the recoveries through forfeiture, our work at SIPC is not over. Thanks to the dedication of the trustee, Irving Picard, and his legal team at Baker & Hostetler, in cooperation with SIPC’s legal team, the recovery of funds for the benefit of Madoff customers continues.”
As was announced last month, on January 29, 2025, the SIPA Trustee will ask the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to approve a 16th distribution in February 2025, of more than $35.8 million to Madoff customers. If approved, the distribution will bring total recoveries by the SIPA Trustee through litigation and settlements to more than $14.5 billion since the discovery of the fraud in December 2008.
“We are confident,” Ms. Wang concluded, “that even more recoveries remain in the SIPA proceeding for BLMIS customers.”
Created by Congress, SIPC was established as a nonprofit under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970. It was tasked with creating and administering a fund that would be used to restore investors’ missing assets in the event of a brokerage firm failure. Since 1971, through 330 liquidation proceedings, SIPC has distributed more than $141 billion for the benefit of more than 773,000 investors who otherwise might have lost their life savings.