Victims of Fraudster Madoff Receive New Payout Totaling Over $350 Million

Victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme will receive another $355.8 million, bringing the total recovered to over $10.5 billion, with more than $7.2 billion paid out.

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On Monday, trustee Irving Picard said the payout which began last week, the fifth such payout, means that slightly over half of allowable claims have been paid in full. The payouts ranged from $431 to $57.1 million, with the average being $330,000, The Associated Press reported.

Madoff victims lost about $17.5 billion of principal in the scheme.

Picard said everyone with an allowable claim of less than $976,000 has been fully paid.

He has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against investment funds called “feeder funds” and former customers who took out more from Madoff’s firm than they put in, Reuters reported.

Madoff, 76, is serving a 150-year sentence at the medium-security federal prison in Butner, N.C., for a scheme believed to be the largest of its kind in U.S. history. He pleaded guilty in March 2009.

The scheme affected a disproportionate number of Jewish individuals and organizations.