Bernie Madoff, a former chairman of NASDAQ and investment advisor, was sentenced to 150 years in prison for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The scheme, which began in the late 1990s, defrauded thousands of investors, including high-profile names in business, politics, and entertainment, of an estimated $65 billion. Madoff’s scheme unraveled in 2008 when the financial crisis exposed the fraud, leading to his arrest.
