Madoff dies in prison

NEW YORK: Bernard Madoff, who for decades masqueraded as a successful and trustworthy Wall Street kingpin before admitting to running the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, died yesterday in prison where he was serving a 150year sentence. He was 82.

His death was believed to be from natural causes. Madoff had suffered from terminal kidney disease and other ailments.

Madoff was imprisoned for engineering a fraud estimated at $US64.8 billion ($NZ90.4 billion). The judge who sentenced him in June 2009 condemned his crimes as “extraordinarily evil.”

Madoff concealed his fraud through multiple recessions and the September 11, 2001, attacks, but the 2008 financial crisis proved his undoing, as investors demanded he redeem $7 billion he did not have.

He was arrested on December 11, 2008, after confessing to sons Mark and Andrew that his business had been “one big lie.” They revealed the scheme to authorities.

Marc Litt, who led the prosecution of Madoff, said: “His passing closes a dark chapter of deception and greed that irretrievably damaged the lives of tens of thousands of victims. It is unfortunately fitting that he died in jail.”