Lives of Crime | 7. Frauds & Sons

Lives of Crime | 7. Frauds & Sons

From The Burden by Orbit Media

May 5, 2026 · 21 min · Season 6 · Episode 7

About this episode

The episode features Bernie Madoff discussing his infamous Ponzi scheme and the events leading to his imprisonment.

Today we hear from Bernie Madoff, mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme ever. Bernie made $65 billion disappear. Billion with a B. Madoff had been a Wall Street star, innovative, rich, honored. He was chairman of the NASDAQ. Also, he was quietly managing other people's money, or said he was. But in fact, he never invested. He paid returns to his clients with the money coming in from new investors. In 2008, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison. That's when Steve Fishman launched a campaign to get him to talk. It took a year, but he finally spoke. Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Guest: Steve Fishman

Topics covered

  • Ponzi scheme
  • financial crime
  • Wall Street
  • investments
  • fraud
  • prison sentence

Keywords

  • Bernie Madoff
  • Ponzi scheme
  • fraud
  • financial crime
  • Steve Fishman
  • NASDAQ
  • prison

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NASDAQ, Orbit Media Inc., Signal Co. No1

More episodes of The Burden

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Burden podcast page.