Shana Madoff Shana Madoff Shana Diane Madoff, sometimes referred to as Shana Madoff Skoller Swanson, (born December 8, 1967) is an American attorney who is now a yoga teacher. She is the daughter of Peter Madoff, and a niece of Bernard Madoff, who employed her as a compliance officer and attorney at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) from 1995 until 2008. In December 2008 BLMIS was discovered to be a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, and closed as part of the Madoff investment scandal. Her uncle Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the scheme, and her father, who
Pyramid scheme cutters", etc. Such schemes may try to downplay their pyramid nature by referring to themselves as "gifting circles" with money being "gifted". Popular schemes such as "Women Empowering Women" do exactly this. Whichever euphemism is used, there are 15 total people in four tiers (1 + 2 + 4 + 8) in the scheme—with the Airplane Game as the example, the person at the top of this tree is the "captain", the two below are "co-pilots", the four below are "crew", and the bottom eight joiners are the "passengers". The eight passengers must each pay (or "gift") a sum (e.g.,