Notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff died in federal prison from natural causes, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Wednesday. He was 82.

Madoff was serving a 150-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2009 of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that saw investors bilked out of an estimated $65 billion.

His Ponzi scheme, estimated to have begun as early as the 1980s, destroyed or crippled the finances of many individuals and charitable organizations worldwide. Many prominent Jewish nonprofits also suffered big losses, with Yeshiva University taking a $140 million hit, Hadassah $90 million and Elie Wiesel’s foundation losing $15 million.

Madoff remained an advisor to a multitude of stars and well-connected members of the American-Jewish community, right up until his arrest in December 2008 and the collapse of his scheme.

A pyramid, or Ponzi, scheme is a form of fraud in which returns on investments are generated only by bringing in fresh investments from new victims. Cash from new clients is used to pay existing clients until the scheme eventually collapses.

Madoff's fraud was revealed during the financial crisis in 2008 when he was unable to satisfy growing client demands to withdraw their investments, and many lost their savings or were unable to retire.

Madoff's son Mark committed suicide in 2010.

In 2019, Madoff asked then-US President Donald Trump to commute his sentence. Trump never responded to the request. In 2020, Madoff's lawyers wrote a letter to a US federal judge in which they petitioned for Madoff’s early release, saying Madoff suffered from "terminal kidney disease, among other serious medical conditions."

The petition for an early release was rejected based on the severity of Madoff's crimes.