Bernie Madoff¡¯s death in prison Wednesday doesn¡¯t change much for his victims, many of whom are still waiting to be made whole on their share of $20 billion that vanished with the con man¡¯s 2008 arrest.
The recovery effort, still under way in court more than a decade later, has been remarkably successful at recouping the lost principal, under the circumstances. But that¡¯s little comfort to investors who lost their life savings or otherwise had their lives turned upside down. And none of them will ever see a cent of the $45 billion in fake trading profits Madoff assured them was safely tucked away in their accounts for retirement.
¡°There are still people suffering vitally from what he did,¡± Burt Meerow, an 82-year-old Vermont retiree who declined to disclose how much he lost, said in an interview about the new king of the Ponzi scheme, also 82 when he died. ¡°The tragedy goes on. He doesn¡¯t.¡±
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