Madoff victims are getting some of their money back:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-04/madoff-victims-get-holiday-treat-with-1-1-million-checks

It very easy to identify which websites are a ponzi that will run away after a short period of time.

1. The website's template is similar to other ponzi websites. I know you guys have experienced this. An investment site that has a very similar look to another investment site is very obvious that it is a ponzi.

2. They use paypal. Paypal's buyer protection does not cover digital goods. In this way, there will be no way for you to dispute your payment if you choose the digital goods as the type of thing that you bought. The ponzi admins can easily run away this way.

3. They pay high. One thing about ponzi scams are they always pay high, this will surely attract investors especially the newbies.

4. The have high referral awards. Another way to attract investors. Some people just spam the referral and don't invest at all. They keep on pushing in social medias to make people register under their account. This promotion will make the website more popular. Thus, ponzi can easily finish their job and runaway.

5. Payment status: Pending. Pretty sure all the people out there that has invested in a ponzi scam has experienced this. Before ponzi run away, they will keep your pay-out as pending. And of course, they will not pay you.

6. "There's a technical problem." They always say there is a technical problem that leads to not paying your pay-out requests. But they do not provide any proof or any screenshot. You should know that the admins are now packing up and are starting to leave when this happens to you.

Always keep in mind what I mentioned above. People should be aware of the ponzi scams out there. Some websites might pay at first, but of course they will run away after a period of time. They are just waiting for big investors to come. Goodluck on investing!

Trendon Shavers gets 18 months:
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-18-months-prison-bitcoin-savings-trust/

Long interview of Trendon Shavers, Bitcoin Savings and Trust:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4yl7do/mt_gox_might_have_been_insolvent_as_early_as_july/

I'm skeptical about everything he says and the hosts are extremely gullible.

Possible miner ponzi scheme in India.  I haven't checked it out, but if they are really promising a 10% return per month you all know what that indicates...
http://coinjournal.net/founder-india-based-bitcoin-mining-pool-gbminers-running-ponzi-scheme/

Now you could get very rich doing bitcoin mining (or more accurately employing cheap labor and you focus on supervising), but the best way is you get lucky with your timing.  You ideally want declining BTC prices for a year or so - so miners are in decline, and then you start up your mining business and the BTC prices take off.  So you make a killing because your costs are flat and your revenue just tripled.  If this happened you could earn 10%/month, but it wouldn't be predictable.  You could also lose 30% month or gain 30%/month.

SEC rules against GAW Miners and Zen Miner
http://www.coindesk.com/sec-wins-11-million-default-judgment-gaw-miners/

Bitcoin Connect is a likely ponzi.  Offering 1%/day interest (variable) for a "trading bot" which is very similar to the story that Bitcoin Savings and Trust used.  While the official offer is 0.1 - 0.25% minimum, the actual returns they are giving people are closer to 1%/day.

They are also behind BitConnect coin which somehow has the 14th top market cap on CoinMarketCap.com.

I'm contacting CoinMarketCap.com to have them delisted and urge you to do the same.

Regal Coin is the latest big ponzi.  Apparently a spin off of Control Finance.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to shut down ponzi ads on Google?  (Control Finance used to have them)
And how can we shut down Youtubers who are promoting ponzis?

Looks like Control Finance is shut down for good.  They are trying to spin off a new site and shut down the old ponzi. Very ambitious!

First time I heard of this one!  I can only imagine how many medium sized ponzi schemes are using Bitcoin...
https://www.coindesk.com/cftc-sues-new-york-man-over-alleged-600k-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme/