I think this whole story is going to be interesting as it unfolds what was actually lost. If it were in Wisconsin I would think you would have to figure out the figure lost as the initial investment plus 5% statutory interest to determine what should be there. Not what your latest fraudulent and inflated report said your holdings were valued at. (if you actually ever got statements, I read in the Economist that if you asked questions you were cut off by Madoff.)

That's not usually how people measure the scope of fraud. I bet that if you went over Enron's history -- the money they raised versus the dividends, buybacks, interest, and principal repayments -- you'd find that, net, they returned more capital than they consumed. Measuring based on what he lied about makes more sense -- Yeshiva thought they had the $110 million he claimed they'd made, not the $14.5 million they had originally invested.

If you put together a simple model of a Madoff investment -- 12.5% gross return, 20% performance fee for the conduit doing the investing -- you'd find that fees eat up all the money within sixteen years (remember, the fee would be on the rapidly-growing amount he pretended to have, but would be paid out of the actual money he raised). If you add a 10% annual redemption (e.g. someone investing their retirement money in Madoff, and living off of the returns plus a sliver of principle), you go from initial investment to insolvency in six years barring further asset raising.

See also:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090109/ap_on_bi_ge/madoff_false_profits