Investors bilked out of $54 million chasing the promise of a green utopia.

An Allentown, Pennsylvania, attorney has been charged for his role in a $2.7 million investment fraud scheme that victimized his law clients, according to a superseding indictment that was unsealed Monday.

At the start of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the Department of Justice today announced that on April 20, the Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) began its fifth distribution of approximately $378.5 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. Government in connection with the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) fraud scheme, bringing the total distributed to over $2.7 billion to nearly 38,000 victims worldwide.

An Allentown, Pennsylvania, attorney pleaded guilty today for his role in a $2.7 million investment fraud scheme that victimized his law clients.

Bernard Madoff may be a fading memory from the past, but for reporter Steve Fishman, the fallen financier’s story holds lessons for today. Madoff masterminded one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history, duping thousands of investors out of tens of billions of dollars. His scam rocked Wall Street for years.

In this episode, we trace the rise and fall of Madoff through Fishman, who spent years interviewing investors, regulators and even Madoff himself from inside federal prison. We learn how Madoff pulled off his scam, and why nobody caught on for decades. We also hear from experts who say that investors still are vulnerable to financial fraud, especially in the era of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

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*This show was originally broadcast February 3, 2018. *It’s been ten years since former NASDAQ chairman Bernie Madoff was arrested for committing one of the largest financial crimes in U.S. history. For decades he ran a Ponzi scheme from a secret office in New York, duping thousands of investors out of billions of dollars. Many of them lost everything when the house of cards fell.

How did Madoff pull it off? And what steps have regulators taken in the past decade to ensure that it doesn’t happen again? For this week’s episode, we teamed up with Steve Fishman, a reporter based in New York City who’s followed the story for years. He produced and hosted a seven-part podcast for Audible called “Ponzi Supernova.”

Through interviews with financial experts, federal agents, Madoff’s cellmates and Madoff himself, Fishman explains how the $60 billion con worked, and why Madoff was able to elude regulators for decades. Fishman says that while Madoff was the mastermind of the scheme, it was banks and other financial institutions who “weaponized” him, turning him from a “local swindler” into an unstoppable force.

Madoff will spend the rest of his life in prison, but no one from these institutions faced similar consequences. And even though some precautions have been put in place since Madoff’s arrest, financial experts warn that for the most part, investors are still on their own.

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Six Malaysian men visit Perth seeking $1.5 million they lost when an alleged Ponzi property scheme masterminded by WA businesswoman Veronica Macpherson collapsed three years ago.