More likely, his firm devolved into a Ponzi scheme only when serious losses hit and he decided not to level with investors but to gamble on a resurrection.

WSJ: Put Madoff In Charge of Social Security

Emerging from the world of penny stock operators, the company survived a cast of dubious financiers during the late eighties and early nineties: a Genovese crime family-associated broker, a Ponzi schemer and a stock swindler, whose firm inspired the movie Boiler Room, none of whose wrongdoings was related to BioReference or Grodman.

FORBES: #17 Bio-Reference Laboratories

In March 2009, Bernard Madoff plead guilty to 11 federal felonies including running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history through his investment firm.

FORBES: Peter Madoff Pleads Guilty But Says He Knew Nothing About A Ponzi Scheme