'Not diminished by his death': Shamed Bernie Madoff leaves behind long list of victims Adam Shapiro In a 2013 jailhouse interview, Bernie Madoff — whose death from kidney disease stole headlines early Wednesday — once admitted that he was "ashamed" of cheating thousands of people out of their life savings. That admission, however, may be cold comfort to the lengthy list of people who have suffered in the wake of a scandal that first broke during the financial crisis over a decade ago. I interviewed the famed Wall Street money manager, and crook, at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, having covered his famous Ponzi scheme from the day it imploded in December 2008. We exchanged several letters and emails prior to our face-to-face meeting.