Hi, I'm Dan Premack and welcome to Axios Recap.

Today is Friday, April 16th.

New home construction is up, jobless claims are down,

and we're digging into the legacy of the late Bernie Madoff.

Bernie Madoff died on Wednesday. In a federal prison hospital in North Carolina at the age of 82.

He'd been suffering from severe kidney disease and passed away 11 years into a 150-year sentence for running the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

In fact, it was so big, so brazen that it might have even made Charles Ponzi blush.

For those not familiar with the story, Madoff at one point really was a successful, legitimate

Wall Streeter, in part by being an early adopter of technologies that would come to dominate

securities trading.

And that success helped Madoff quietly secure

billions of dollars in investments, some from institutions like charities and hedge funds and pension

plans, some from families and individuals. But the big secret kept even from Madoff's sons who

worked at his firm was that Madoff at some point stopped actually investing.

Instead, he paid returns to existing investors out of deposits from new ones.

And when the market began cratering in 2008 and clients pulled out their money,

the whole thing collapsed quickly and devastatingly for Madoff clients,

two of whom soon after took their own lives.

If you're already familiar with the story, it may be because you read a book called Wizard of

Lies by Diana B. Henriquez, or saw the HBO film version starring Robert De Niro and Michelle

Pfeiffer. So we want to talk to Diana Henriquez about why Madoff mattered, what changed as a result of his scheme, and if she thinks there's another Bernie out there now.

We're joined now by Diana B. Henriquez. Let's start kind of big picture here. Even for those who maybe followed the Madoff saga, what's the simplest, easiest way to

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