Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme victims receive $2.48 billion payout

Bernie Madoff's victims have checks on the way: $2.48 billion in checks, to be exact. 

1,230 victims of the jailed financier's Ponzi scheme will receive payouts in amounts that start at $1,784 and go up to $526.8 million, according to the trustee in charge of liquidating Madoff's firm's assets. 

The latest round of payments is on top of nearly $1.15 billion that has already been sent to Madoff's investors, making the total of redistributed funds to more than $3.6 billion, CNN Money reported. 

As a result of this latest round of payments, 182 more victims will have recovered their losses in full. In total, there are 1,074 closed claims, UPI reported. 

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"While this progress is extremely gratifying, we will not cease our work to continue recovering assets for the Customer Fund, and we will make additional distributions as soon as practicable" Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee, said in a statement, ABC News reported. 

74-year-old Madoff was arrested in December 2008 for running a Ponzi scheme that Picard estimates lost his investors a total of $17.3 billion, Reuters reported. The trustee has recovered $9.15 billion, or 53 percent of that money. 

Madoff is currently serving a 150-year prison sentence in North Carolina after pleading guilty to fraud. 

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