Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., is urging the Justice Department to start repaying victims of Bernie Madoff's multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme from some of the recovered money, The Hill reported.
Buchanan wrote a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions noting victims have not received anything from the $4 billion victims' fund, the website said.
"Not a single dollar has been paid to these victims," Buchanan said. "Yet, the firm hired to oversee the fund has received more than $38 million in payments. It is outrageous that victims languish in hardship while government-sanctioned administrators collect millions in fees."
"These victims, many of whom are from Sarasota and Southwest Florida, are being victimized twice. They were cheated out of their life savings and now they're being denied timely compensation from a fund that was specifically set up to help them."
Madoff was sentenced to 150 years behind bars in 2009 after pleading guilty to fraud charges, USA Today reported.
He admitted he had used money from some investors to pay others, according to the newspaper.
The Madoff fraud left thousands of ordinary investors, charities, celebrities and pension funds devastated, USA Today reported.
A special master, Richard Breeden, whose company was hired to distribute the victims' funds, admitted he had hoped to start paying back people in 2016, the newspaper said.
"However, we now expect that the initial distribution will take place sometime in 2017 and will be larger than we had anticipated," said Breeden.
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