Bernard Madoff, the mastermind behind the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history, ripping off tens of thousands of people of as much as $65 billion, died in a federal prison early Wednesday at the age of 82.
Madoff’s death at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, was confirmed by his lawyer and the Bureau of Prisons.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, that his death was due to natural causes.
Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 during the time of his death for masterminding a Ponzi scheme that conned investors out of millions of dollars.
At the time, the schemer pleaded guilty and apologized, telling the court he was "ashamed" of his actions. Accordingly, Judge Denny Chin hardly showed mercy for him.
"Here, the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil," Chin said while delivering the accused man's sentence, "and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless financial crime that takes place just on paper, but it is instead—one that takes a staggering human toll."
Victims of the his Ponzi scheme included Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, as well as director Steven Spielberg, according to NBC News.
The former NASDAQ chairman was born in 1938 in a lower-middle-class Jewish neighborhood in Queens.
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