Every report I can find says that Bernie Madoff’s brother Peter will have to give back $143 billion as part of his plea bargain. It sure seems like a typo in U.S. Attorney Preet Bharar’s papers, recently filed in Manhattan federal court.
The total Madoff fraud — the imaginary profits — was estimated at $60 billion. The amount investors lost was estimated at $20 billion. The court-appointed trustee for the Madoff victims, Irving Picard, claimed that Peter Madoff received at least $60 million during the fraud.
So where did Bharar get the $143 billion dollar figure? He either made it up, or he doesn’t know the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars, or he’s trying to inflate his successes.
Either way, he can Bite Me.