[XorNot]

They never owned the stock, is the point of the Madoff scheme. If investing in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme bought actual units of shares, then it wouldn't have been a Ponzi scheme.

The point of a Ponzi scheme is that the current value is being supported by keeping the influx of new investors greater then those withdrawing their money.

The only way Madoff's investment scheme was worth anything was if he kept new investors coming in to cover withdrawals and siphoned off the capital base to support himself.