A respected Wall Street figure ran the largest fraud in financial history for decades

Bernie Madoff, a former chairman of NASDAQ, told investors he was earning them steady, unusually consistent returns, when in reality he was simply paying old investors with new investors' money. The scheme collapsed in 2008 when the financial crisis triggered a wave of withdrawal requests he couldn't meet, revealing roughly $65 billion in claimed but nonexistent assets, the largest Ponzi scheme ever uncovered.

— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Litigation Release No. 20834 — December 2008