NEW YORK – Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, died Wednesday in federal prison.

The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Madoff, 82, died of natural causes early Wednesday. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Kristie Breshears said Madoff's family was notified of his passing at the agency's medical facility in Butner, North Carolina.

Madoff admitted in 2009 to swindling thousands of clients out of billions of dollars in investments over decades. They reportedly included the likes of baseball legend Sandy Koufax, Hollywood titan Jeffrey Katzenberg, actor Kevin Bacon and actor John Malkovich.

“His life has ended, but his larcenous legacy has been indelibly etched in investment lore," said Sam Stovall, author of "The Seven Rules of Wall Street" and chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

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A court-appointed trustee has recovered more than $13 billion of an estimated $17.5 billion that investors put into Madoff’s business. At the time of Madoff's arrest, fake account statements were telling clients they had holdings worth $60 billion.

Madoff, a former Nasdaq stock market chairman from New York City, ran a decadeslong scam that gave celebrities, charities, financial funds and ordinary investors lucrative, eerily steady returns on their investments.

Income poured in, making Madoff and his family rich. His upscale lifestyle included a Manhattan condo, an oceanfront home in Montauk, New York, on Long Island's East End, a vacation home on Nantucket in Massachusetts, and a three-bedroom vacation apartment in the south of France.

But Madoff masterminded a classic Ponzi scheme, one in which money from more recent investors went to pay earlier investors.

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The scam collapsed in December 2008, when Madoff's businesses could not cover the growing withdrawal requests from investors who sought money amid the Great Recession.

For many of those who'd previously trusted and even revered Madoff, the collapse wiped out their life savings and retirement plans. Some had to seek new jobs or move in with friends and relatives.

For Madoff, the beginning of the end came when he confessed the truth to his sons, Mark and Andrew. They notified federal authorities, who arrested Madoff.