Fraudster Bernie Madoff's co-conspirator brother Peter, 74, is released from federal custody after serving 9 years of a 10-year sentence for role in the largest Ponzi scheme in US history

The younger brother and co-conspirator of infamous scam artist Bernie Madoff was released from federal custody on Thursday having served nine years for his role in the largest Ponzi scheme in US history.

Peter Madoff, 74, was handed a ten-year sentence in December 2012 after admitting he aided his brother Bernie, the scheme’s mastermind, in handing out the bogus firm’s last $300 million to insiders once they were caught out.

He claimed he was not aware the firm was fraudulent until it collapsed in 2008, despite having helped his brother run it over four decades. 

Yet a judge ruled that Peter’s ‘sham compliance program’ had allowed Bernie’s swindling scheme to go undetected for years as he sentenced him to a decade in jail.  

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Peter Madoff, 74, was released from federal custody on Thursday after nine years

According to the Bureau of Prisons website, Peter was released from home confinement this week, a year ahead of his 2021 scheduled release.

He had been transferred to home confinement from the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami on November 19, 2019.

Peter had served as chief compliance officer for his brother's firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. 

A lawyer by training, he alleged he had no knowledge of the Ponzi scheme until his brother confessed to him on the night of December 9, 2008. 

He was then told for the first time that the investment business they had built together was a sham. 

The younger Madoff brother was arrested two days later and confessed their $65-billion crimes to authorities. 

He pleaded guilty to one count of falsifying records and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

In a settlement with a trustee working on behalf of those hit by the scheme, his family had to hand over $90million in assets. 

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Peter Madoff pleaded guilty to one count of falsifying records and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in his brother Bernie's infamous Ponzi scheme. He was sentence to ten years in prison but was released this week from home confinement after just nine years

In total, a trustee has recovered roughly $14billion out of the more than $17billion lost by investors, who had received fraudulent statements to suggest their investments had grown enormously.

Peter was sentenced on two criminal charges three years to the day that his older brother was given 150 years jail time.

Bernie Madoff, 82, pleaded guilty in March 2009 to orchestrating the largest and most high-profile Ponzi scheme in US history.

He admitted swindling thousands of clients out of billions of dollars in investments over decades.

In early June, a judge ruled that the dying Ponzi king should finish his life in prison and refused his bid to be released early..

Judge Denny Chin ruled that when he set the prison sentence in 2009, he intended Madoff to die in jail and that nothing has happened in the last eleven years to change his mind. 

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Bernie Madoff, 82, pleaded guilty in March 2009 to orchestrating the largest and most high-profile Ponzi scheme in US history. He is pictured leaving federal court in February 2009

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Bernie Madoff is being held in the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina

Chin, who now sits on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, noted the continuing suffering of Madoff's thousands of victims after the fraudulent scheme, which deceived them into thinking their money was invested properly, was exposed in December 2008. 

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Bernie Madoff, 82, was sentenced to 150 years behind bars in 2009 by Judge Denny Chin for a decades-long scheme that scammed thousands of people of $17.5billion

'I also believe that Mr. Madoff was never truly remorseful, and that he was only sorry that his life as he knew it was collapsing around him. Even at the end, he was trying to send more millions of his ill-gotten gains to family members, friends, and certain employees,' Chin wrote.

The judge said he'd reviewed public statements made by Madoff and found they 'show that he has never fully accepted responsibility for his actions and that he even faults his victims.'

Madoff had requested compassionate release though his lawyers.

The request lets some prisoners go home if they are likely to die within 18 months.

Prison authorities had recently determined Madoff is dying of terminal kidney failure.

In his request for early release, his lawyer cited end-stage kidney disease and other 'chronic, serious medical conditions,' including hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

After Chin’s refusal, Madoff's representatives called on President Donald Trump to commute his sentence.

His request is 'pending', according to the US Department of Justice’s website.

He is currently being held at a federal medical facility in North Carolina.