JPMorgan Chase and federal authorities are nearing settlements over the bank’s ties to Bernard L. Madoff, striking tentative deals that would involve roughly $2 billion in penalties and a rare criminal action. The government will use a sizable portion of the money to compensate Mr. Madoff’s victims. The settlements, which are coming together on the anniversary of Mr. Madoff’s arrest at his Manhattan penthouse five years ago on Wednesday, would fault the bank for turning a blind eye to his huge Ponzi scheme, according to people briefed on the case who were not authorized to speak publicly. More in the New York Times [...]

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the arrest of Bernie Madoff and the day when his decades-long, $60 billion Ponzi scheme finally collapsed. The Madoff trial has long since concluded, and he is currently serving out a 150-year prison sentence. But the effects of his deeds continue to be felt across the U.S., while the authorities continue to pursue justice for Madoff’s victims. In other words, the story has continued to develop in the years since the public’s attention has shifted away from the Madoff saga. Here are five things you may not know about the biggest financial scam in history: More in Time Magazine [...]

JPMorgan Chase is reportedly about to cut a sweet deal to dodge criminal charges over its role in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. It’s just the latest evidence that, despite their tough talk, U.S. prosecutors still think some banks are too big to jail. JPMorgan is close to paying about $2 billion to settle claims that, as Madoff’s main bank for many years, it ignored blatant signs that Madoff was up to no good, the New York Times reports. As part of the deal, JPMorgan will also enter what’s known as a deferred prosecution agreement, where everybody will agree that the biggest U.S. bank broke criminal laws and also that prosecutors don’t plan to do anything about it, as long as JPMorgan keeps its nose clean. More in the Huffington Post [...]

JUDY WOODRUFF: Here to flesh out this story is Diana Henriques, who has been chronicling it from the beginning. She’s a reporter for The New York Times and she’s the author of a book about the Madoff case, “The Wizard of Lies.” Diana Henriques, welcome back to the NewsHour. You have been following very closely, among other things, the effort to recover as much of the money Madoff stole as possible to get it back to people who lost the money. How is that process going? DIANA HENRIQUES, The New York Times: Well, I think here at year five, we can say it has been extremely slow, extremely complicated and for the victims extremely frustrating. More on PBS [...]

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) may pay about $2 billion to resolve U.S. probes into whether the bank ignored signs of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified people briefed on the matter. The firm is close to a deal that includes a deferred prosecution agreement and more than $1 billion in penalties to resolve a criminal case, with remaining sanctions imposed by federal regulators investigating gaps in the company’s money-laundering safeguards, the newspaper said. More on Bloomberg [...]

Some called him “Uncle Bernie,” others barely knew his name. But collectively, Bernard L. Madoff’s thousands of victims world-wide saw billions of dollars in savings—retirement money, college funds; in many cases the rewards of a life’s work—vanish on the morning of Dec. 11, 2008. Five years since the biggest financial fraud in history was revealed, many of Mr. Madoff’s investors say moving on is impossible. Their lives are now cleaved into two parts—before Madoff and after. Many have endured divorce and despair but some have also shown remarkable resilience and profess to have gained new perspectives on life. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

Ponzi scheme architect Bernard Madoff’s investment business was virtually a phony-document factory where employees churned out bogus sets of books and records crafted to deceive auditors, court testimony showed Monday. Describing the tactics at the conspiracy trial of five former Madoff co-workers, star prosecution witness Frank DiPascali also testified that the boss, worried by the audits, secretly searched one examiner’s briefcase and led a staff meeting to discuss possible electronic spying on two other auditors. More in USA [...]

The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff’s victims may be unable to pursue some claims against investment firms that fed client funds into the swindler’s Ponzi scheme, a Manhattan federal judge said. In a decision released on Monday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff also said the trustee Irving Picard could not pursue “unjust enrichment” claims against spouses of Madoff’s sons Andrew and Mark, saying the women did not qualify as “insiders” who could be held liable for fraud. More on Reuters [...]

Bernard Madoff sweated the intricate details of his massive Ponzi scheme. Obsessively. Keeping one of history’s largest frauds running for decades arguably required at least as much time and effort as operating a legitimate investment firm, according to evidence in the ongoing conspiracy trial of former Madoff employees. Frank DiPascali, the now-disgraced financier’s ex-finance chief, told jurors Madoff paced around his firm’s Manhattan offices, discussing how to handle investment fabrications and respond to investigations and other threats. More on USA Today [...]