This guy Madoff lost billions of his clients money like all the hedge funds. Those losses are not covered by any agency. Only fraud is covered. So what do you do? I think that Madoff is just a fall guy. The losses of his fund were the same as other funds, mutual and hedge and personal losses. By saying it was a Ponzi scheme (fraud) by this one guy all those rich investors will be covered from their losses unlike the rest of the world. .
It turns out crime does pay.