This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Victims of the fraudster Bernard Madoff are set to receive another $695.3m from a government compensation fund, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.

The payout – the third made by the Madoff Victim Fund – will be distributed starting Thursday to 27,000 victims of the infamous scammer around the world. It will bring the total paid out to victims so far to nearly $2bn, out of more than a total of $4bn that will eventually be paid.

“Bernie Madoff’s scheme devastated retirement and pension funds, charitable organizations and thousands of individual investors,” said US assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski.

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“The payments announced today could not have happened without the prosecutors’ relentless pursuit of proceeds of Madoff’s fraud through civil forfeiture,” he said. “Victims who would not have seen a dime in other compensation programs will now recover more than half of their losses.”

The disgraced financier was arrested 10 years ago next month, after years of ripping off investors, many of whom lost their life savings to the scheme. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the $65bn fraud, considered the largest Ponzi or pyramid scheme in history.

Money for the fund came from the estate of one of Madoff’s closest friends, Jeffrey Picower, a top investor who profited from Madoff’s scam. His estate handed over $2.2bn to pay back the victims.

JP Morgan Chase, which was Madoff’s main bank, also agreed in a settlement to kick in cash, and authorities pursued civil forfeiture actions against Madoff family members and another investor.

The fund made its first payment in 2011.

Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies in 2009, admitting that he had turned his wealth management business into the world’s largest swindle.

His prominent victims included the Wilpon family, which owns the New York Mets baseball team, and Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel.