Bernie Madoff’s death ‘reopens profoundly painful wounds’ for Ponzi scheme victims

Judy Schindler says her 87-year-old mother has no tears to shed for Bernie Madoff.

Rhea Schindler had to give up her house and the family was forced to auction off Jewish heirlooms after Madoff squandered her husband’s retirement savings in a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme that crumbled more than a decade ago. Her husband, Rabbi Alexander Schindler, died before the scheme came to light. But her daughter, now a rabbi in Charlotte, vividly remembers the fallout.

“Madoff’s death reopens profoundly painful wounds for his victims,” Judy Schindler, Rabbi Emerita of Temple Beth El, told McClatchy News on Wednesday. “His actions devastated lives, families and organizations — many of whom never recovered.”

Madoff, 82, died early Wednesday at a federal prison complex in Butner, North Carolina, about 25 miles northwest of Raleigh. He was serving a 150-year sentence on securities fraud and other charges after he pleaded guilty in 2009 to cheating as many as 37,000 people out of billions of dollars over the course of four decades.

His was reportedly one of history’s worst Ponzi schemes, in which early investors are fraudulently paid profits from money infused into accounts by more recent investors.

The international scheme fell apart when investors withdrew billions of dollars and Madoff told his sons the whole thing had been “one big lie,” The New York Times reported. He was arrested in late 2008 at his New York City penthouse.

His lawyers had asked a federal judge for compassionate release from prison early last year, saying he had “chronic kidney failure” and 18 months to live. The request was denied.

The Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, which houses incarcerated men in low- and medium-security units, has seen one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks of any federally run prison during the pandemic. More than 1,200 inmates have tested positive for the virus, and 28 have died, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Officials did not list a cause of death for Madoff.

Once a prominent figure on Wall Street, Madoff was accused of fleecing stars such as film director Steven Spielberg and actor Kevin Bacon, as well as regular investors.

Norman Braman, a billionaire car dealer and former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles who invested with Madoff, told Jim DeFede with CBS Miami on Wednesday he had no reaction to Madoff’s passing, saying, “It was over a long time ago for me.”

“I can’t change what’s already happened,” Braman said, according to the news outlet. “So I never look back. It’s not in my nature. And that philosophy has served me well all of my life.”

Kevin Clancy, host of KFC Radio for Barstool Sports, said on Twitter he was also impacted by Madoff’s scheme, though it wasn’t immediately clear how.

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but Bernie Madoff ruined my life for like a decade so... I’ll just say nothing,” he wrote.

Some of Madoff’s victims had previously said they hoped he would die in prison.

Della Hertzberg, who lived in Aiken, South Carolina, told The State in 2009 that Madoff “got what he deserved” after his prison sentence was announced.

Dozens of others spoke at his sentencing hearing in 2009, including a then-33-year-old investor named Michael Schwartz.

“Your Honor, I say this without any malice: Bernard Madoff should no longer be allowed back in society,” he told the judge, according to transcripts published by The New York Post. “I only hope that his prison sentence is long enough so that his jail cell becomes his coffin.”

In phone interviews with The Washington Post in early 2020, Madoff expressed remorse for cheating people out of their money. He said he had to use a wheelchair and required 24-hour assistance.

“I’m terminally ill,” Madoff said, according to the Post. “There’s no cure for my type of disease. So, you know, I’ve served. I’ve served 11 years already, and, quite frankly, I’ve suffered through it.”

In a 2009 interview with the Daily News, Schindler, the North Carolina rabbi, said Madoff would have another judgment day: “One day he will stand before God.”

More than a decade later, she feels the same way.

“Madoff did stand before the courts and will ultimately stand in judgment before God,” she said Wednesday. “We each create a legacy through our everyday actions, for good or for bad. In his case, sadly, his family name will forever be tarnished.”

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