Savings Lost to Madoff, Elderly Forced Back to Work (Jason Szep)

Fri Feb 6, 2009 7:59pm EST-- After losing his entire life's savings to disgraced fund manager Bernard Madoff, 90-year-old Ian Thiermann abandoned retirement and now works the aisles of a grocery store to make ends meet.

Handing out fliers hawking avocados and pork ribs at a supermarket in Ben Lomond, California, Thiermann is one of many facing dramatic lifestyle changes after losing their savings in Madoff's suspected $50 billion Ponzi scheme.{xtypo_quote_right} "On the first day I went to work, after pushing that vacuum cleaner around, I came home and said to myself 'this is what my life has come to,' and I held onto my dog and I cried," Ebel said in a telephone interview. {/xtypo_quote_right}

Thiermann wasn't even aware he had invested with Madoff until December 15, when a friend who managed his investments called him on the telephone. "He said, 'I've lost everything and you have lost everything.'" For Thiermann, that meant $750,000.

Days after the release of a list of thousands of Madoff customers -- from Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax to actor John Malkovich -- a picture is emerging of a scandal that has reverberated far beyond America's still-wealthy to those who have lost nearly everything.

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Read More: Reuters