Kevin Bacon is an incredibly well-recognized and successful actor in Hollywood. He has had his era of massive box-office success after being in one of the most iconic movies of the 80s, Footloose, as well as being part of other projects like Friday the 13th, Mystic River, X-Men: First Class, and Hollow Man.
Aside from being famous for his acting, the actor has also become well recognized for quite an unfortunate reason, being one of the worst affected biggest victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
What Was Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme?
Bernie Madoff was a Nasdaq stock market chairman and one of the most important names on Wall Street, who solely worked with charities and celebrities to help them find opportunities to get investments with larger returns. What many did not know, however, is that Madoff was part of a Ponzi scheme that involved taking money from new investors to pay off older investors in a systematic fashion.
In 2008, however, all of this fell apart and came to light the public when investors wanted to withdraw their money in light of the recession. Madoff now had to pay these people with money he did not have and could not acquire. The clients were lied to over several years that their holdings were worth large sums of money when, in reality, that was not the case.
This scheme affected up to 37,000 people with an estimated $65 billion in Madoff’s fraud. Though Madoff was caught and sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died at the age of 82, many people had their life savings and retirement money invested that they now, had completely lost. These people also included some very familiar names like Steven Spielberg and Kevin Bacon.
How Much Did Kevin Bacon Lose Due To Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme?
Many celebrities lost quite a lot due to Bernie Madoff’s fraud. Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Co-founder of DreamWorks Pictures alongside Steven Spielberg was also a victim of this. The Hungarian artist who also starred in Moulin Rouge, Zsa Zsa Gabor also invested with Bernie Madoff and reportedly lost between $7 to $10 million.
“It was a bad day,” Bacon told The Guardian. “But pretty quickly we were able to see all the things we had as opposed to whatever we lost, and those are the biggest cliches: children, health, love, a nice home. So we got through it together. I don’t think about Madoff, like, at all.”
Kevin Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick also invested quite a lot of money in Bernie Madoff, so much so that their net worth, which can be assumed as quite a lot due to their success, took a massive hit. Though this information has not been confirmed by Bacon, it is estimated that the pair lost anywhere between $30 million to $100 million due to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Bacon’s net worth fell down drastically as it is believed to be around $45 million as of 2021.
Source: CheatSheet
