Many of Bernard Madoff’s victims have been forced to sell their homes or cancel retirement plans. But Miriam Siegman is now reduced to scavenging for food in skips.

The retired New York consultant told the court yesterday that, after losing her life savings, she now survives on welfare payments.

“I manage on food stamps. At the end of the month, I sometimes scavenge in dumpsters,” she said. “I cannot afford new eyeglasses. I long to go to a concert but I cannot afford it.”

The 65-year-old Manhattan native even resorts to picking up empty soft-drink cans for the five-cent deposit. “I collect empty cans and drag them to the redemption centre,” she confessed.

Ms Siegman, who worked for a non-profit organisation, invested her savings in Mr Madoff’s pyramid scheme a quarter of a century ago after being introduced to him by a kindly widow working for the American Jewish Congress. She declines to say how much she lost. But now she believes she is perilously close to becoming homeless and having to live in her Volvo.

“People ask me, ‘How are you?’ I answer, ‘I’m fine’. But it’s not always true,” she said. “It’s only a matter of time. I will be unable to meet my basic needs: food, healthcare and shelter. The man sitting in this courtroom robbed me . . . He discarded me like roadkill . . . Forgiveness for now will have to come from someone other than me.”

Madoff’s victims are furious at him not just for the money, but for the betrayal of their trust, claiming he had “deep contempt for his victims”.

Many are also angry at the US Government for failing to follow up tip-offs about his fraud and for denying investors insurance pay-outs.

The victims held a rally after yesterday’s sentencing to denounce the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which missed multiple clues, and the Securities Investor Protection Corp (SIPC), which is denying government insurance to some investors because Madoff never actually invested their money in securities, even though he said he did.

The cheated investors brandished placards saying “SIPC = SCAM” and calling the SEC the “Sorry Excuses Commission”.

Untangling the web of financial transactions and law suits is expected to take almost as long as the giant scam itself. Ken Rubinstein, partner of New York law firm Rubinstein & Rubinstein, which is advising investors, said: “The sentencing is nice drama but that’s all. The real issues are going to be litigated in the courts for at least two to three years, if not five or six.”

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