Among the first of the firm's investors, Carl J. Shapiro had maintained a forty-year relationship with both Madoff and his firm prior to the exposure of the BLMIS scheme. Having invested nearly a billion into Madoff's firm including $250 million the week prior to Madoff's arrest, Shapiro likely suffered some of the greatest losses to the Madoff Ponzi scheme. That being said, his long-term involvement with and close relationship to Madoff as an early investor and beneficiary has made him suspect in a number of ongoing investigations. While he was indeed shoveling hundreds of millions into Madoff accounts, he was withdrawing hundreds of million more. Shapiro's estate has since settled to pay $625 million to the federal government, a sum larger than both his current net worth and fraudulent profits he allegedly made through BLMIS. The settlement however never contained any admission or finding of guilt on his behalf.
