I think that the $17B is the principal that was invested with him. If you include what people thought they had, it’s more like $65B or so.
One of the saddest things I ever heard about what Madoff did was in an interview with a woman who said, “He took my past, my present and my future.” For many people, a lot of the funds they invested with him was money that their parents and grandparents had earned and left them. That’s their past. Their present is that they had to quickly downsize so they could live within their greatly diminished means. And their future? They will have nothing at all to leave to their children and grandchildren.
That would make me so angry and sad.