I believe the tally of CURRENT losses is $50 billion, likely more by the time the final accounting is done. Lots of the firms/individuals had been with Madoff for years and years. If your scenario is correct, the paying out of an average 10% return over twenty years, culminating in a $50 Billion loss, means that he has gone through over one $Trillion in his years running this scam. The paid off investors were receiving regular distributions for years, so the total $$$ run through the scam is a magnitude larger than $50 Billion. I’m guessing One $Trillion above, but that’s probably low, under your scenario.
And he did all that with just he and his wife cooking the books?
Nahh, something stinks to high heaven here.
He also paid higher than 10% returns. Apparently they were closer to 12% consistently.