Few people outside of Wall Street had heard of Bernard Madoff before he confessed to his epic fraud in 2008. In the decade since, he has become the personification of greed — and a household name. Madoff and his inner circle have been featured in books, movies, even an off-Broadway play. Here is what has become of some of the major players.

The defendant

Bernard Madoff leaves U.S. Federal Court after a hearing regarding his bail on Jan. 14, 2009, in New York. Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images



Bernie Madoff turned 80 in 2018. He apparently marked the occasion quietly at the medium security Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, where he is in the 10th year of a 150-year sentence. His longtime defense attorney, Ira Lee Sorkin, says he last spoke with Madoff earlier this year. "He's keeping his mind active. He's doing OK," Sorkin said, "as well as one could expect someone to be OK when they know they're going to die in prison."

Madoff has cut back on his contacts with the news media, not responding to multiple emails from CNBC ahead of the 10th anniversary of his arrest on Dec. 11, 2008. In a 2013 interview at the prison, he said life behind bars was proving to be less stressful than life on Wall Street. "It's kind of like being in the Army," he said, "only you're not worried about getting killed." But in a 2015 email, he wrote, "I'm hanging in there. I miss my family terribly. How on earth did I get myself into this nightmare?"

The spouse

Ruth Madoff appears on NBC News' 'Today' show. Peter Kramer | NBC NewsWire | NBCUniversal | Getty Images

Madoff's wife and high school sweetheart, Ruth, was never implicated in her husband's crimes. Nonetheless, she agreed to forfeit some $75 million in assets held in her name, including the couple's Upper East Side apartment. The settlement with federal prosecutors left her with $2.5 million, which reportedly allows her to lead a comparatively modest lifestyle in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. In one of her only interviews about the scandal, she told NBC's "Today" in 2011 that she knew nothing about her husband's fraud. WATCH: CNBC's 2008 coverage of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme

"It was something that not in a million years I would have expected," she said. At the time, she said she had cut off all contact with her husband at her sons' insistence. But the couple is still married, and Bernie Madoff claimed to CNBC in 2013 that he still managed to make contact with Ruth about major family matters.

The sons

Andrew Madoff as he appeared on NBC News' "Today" show, October 2011. Peter Kramer | NBC | Getty Images

In the most Shakespearean twist of the scandal, neither of the Madoffs' two sons survive. Older son Mark Madoff hanged himself in 2010 on the second anniversary of his father's confession. He was 46, and his own 2-year-old son was asleep in the next room. While both Mark and Andrew Madoff maintained that they knew nothing about their father's crimes, Mark apparently concluded he would never be able to be completely free of the scandal.

Andrew died four years later, at 48, after a long battle with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare cancer that typically strikes men over 60. While the two sons were never charged criminally, court-appointed trustee Irving H. Picard alleged they received millions of dollars that they should have known were illicit proceeds from the fraud. In 2017, Picard and the Justice Department reached a $23 million settlement with the sons' estates, with the money to go to victims.

The family

Peter Madoff in 2002. Getty Images

As director of compliance for his older brother's investment advisory business, Peter Madoff was in a position to know plenty of secrets. But he insisted that his brother's fraud was not one of them. Nonetheless, the younger Madoff pleaded guilty in 2012 to one count of falsifying records and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and is scheduled to be released in 2021. Peter's daughter Shana also worked in compliance for the Madoff firm. She briefly raised eyebrows when it was revealed that she was married to Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Eric Swanson, and that the couple had dated since 2003. A subsequent investigation by the SEC's Office of Inspector General found no evidence that the couple's relationship compromised the agency's examinations of the Madoff firm, and neither was accused of wrongdoing. Today, Shana reportedly works as a yoga instructor. Swanson left the SEC in 2006 and is CEO for the Americas at XTX Markets, an electronic market-making firm.

The star witness

Frank DePascali, former chief financial officer of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, exits federal court in New York, Dec. 4, 2013. Louis Lanzano | Bloomberg | Getty Images



Bernie Madoff has always claimed he acted alone, but federal prosecutors sought to prove that could not possibly be true. Doing so would require testimony from a true insider, and Frank DiPascali fit the bill perfectly. DiPascali, Madoff's chief financial officer and right-hand man, pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts in 2009, and proceeded to sing like a canary. For two weeks in late 2013, the Brooklyn-born college dropout mesmerized a federal jury in the trial of five ex-Madoff employees with stories about how they conspired for years to thwart federal investigators. That includes the time they produced a stack of false records for SEC examiners on site, but not before putting the papers in a refrigerator to hide the fact that they had just come out of the printer. He also recounted how he and the others tossed the stack around the office like a football to make them appear to be worn. For more on Madoff: 10 Years Later, subscribe to American Greed on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. DiPascali faced up to 125 years in prison for his own crimes, but he died of lung cancer in 2015, four months before his scheduled sentencing.

The employees

Daniel Bonventre, who served as Director of Operations for Madoff Investment Securities, leaves federal court after being found guilty of charges of aiding, assisting and profiting from the Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff on March 24, 2014 in New York City. Getty Images

DiPascali's testimony helped seal the fate of the so-called Madoff Five, backroom staffers at Madoff's investment advisory business, which was at the heart of the fraud. Daniel Bonventre was director of operations. Annette Bongiorno — one of Madoff's longest serving employees — joined the firm out of high school. She worked as Madoff's personal secretary for a time, eventually becoming a portfolio manager. Joann Crupi was an investment advisor, and George Perez and Jerome O'Hara developed the computer programs Madoff used to falsify trades.

Annette Bongiorno, a former employee at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, exits federal in New York, on Friday, March 21, 2014. Louis Lanzano | Bloomberg | Getty Images

All five were convicted in 2014 on a variety of fraud charges, though none was accused of knowing about Madoff's scam. Crupi, O'Hara, and Perez have already completed their sentences, Bongiorno could be out as soon as next year, and Bonventre is scheduled for release in 2023.

The bank

People inside the offices of JP Morgan Chase in New York City. Getty Images