The trustee in charge of recovering assets from Bernard Madoff’s fraudulent investment operations said on Wednesday $21.2bn had been lost through his Ponzi scheme, an amount far higher than was thought as recently as June.

Irving Picard, the court appointed trustee, who initially estimated that $13bn was missing, said after examining accounts dating back to 1983 the losses were deeper and could continue to grow as more claims were made. Mr Madoff is serving a 150-year jail term.