
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
- Lives of Crime | 4. Then You Get Got · April 14, 2026 · 20 min
- Lives of Crime | 3. Making Money · April 7, 2026 · 24 min
- Lives of Crime | 2. Education of an Assassin Part 2 · March 31, 2026 · 27 min
- Lives of Crime | 6. King of the Hippie Mafia · March 24, 2026 · 27 min
- Lives of Crime | 5. Bad Business Kid · March 24, 2026 · 22 min
- Lives of Crime | 1. Education of an Assassin Part 1 · March 24, 2026 · 27 min
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