Even after Madoff’s death, work to unwind epic fraud goes on

NEW YORK (AP) — Days after Bernard Madoff confessed to the biggest Ponzi scheme in Wall Street history, a judge hired a trustee to sift through the con man’s books and see how much money he could salvage for victims of the fraud. Even after Madoff’s recent death in April, that effort to untangle the web of deceit continues. To date, the trustee has returned more than $14.5 billion to its rightful owners by forcing people who made money with Madoff to give up those ill-gotten gains. The cash has allowed some of Madoff’s biggest losers to put their lives back together, but few have emerged unscathed.