Bernard Madoff's son, Mark, found dead on second anniversary of father's arrest

[News_Editor]

Bernard Madoff's son, Mark, found dead on second anniversary of father's arrest

2010-12-11 21:48:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK CITY (BNO NEWS) -- Mark Madoff, the son of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, was found dead in his New York City home on Saturday morning, police said. It is also the two-year anniversary of Bernard's arrest.

Police said Mark Madoff was found dead at around 7.30 a.m. EST at his home in SoHo, a neighborhood in Manhattan. A family member who found him called police.

Police officials released few details about the death, but confirmed it appeared to be a suicide and said Mark Madoff was found hanging inside his luxury apartment. A two-year-old child was with him.

The sudden death of Mark, who was never charged with any crimes relating to his father's massive Ponzi scheme, comes on the second anniversary of Bernard's arrest.

Bernard Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty last March to running Wall Street's biggest ever investment fraud of as much as $65 billion. He is currently serving a 150-year prison sentence.

Last month, two former employees of Bernard Madoff were arrested for their alleged participation in Madoff's fraud scheme. Both have been charged in a Superseding Indictment with conspiracy, securities fraud, falsifying books and records of a broker-dealer, falsifying books and records of an investment adviser, and committing tax evasion.

"As everyone knows, Bernard Madoff perpetrated the largest financial fraud in history, but others criminally assisted his epic crime," said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, last month. "Year after year, Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi protected and perpetuated the Madoff mirage, while putting very real money in their own pockets."

And on Tuesday, New York prosecutors announced that Carl J. Shapiro - who invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Barnard Madoff - had agreed, along with related people and entities, to forfeit $625 million to the United States, all of which will be made available to the victims of Madoff.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-12-11

[LaoPo]

..Tragic really; The Madoff scandal doesn't have any winners, only losers and, not knowing if the son was involved or not, it must have been like h_ll for the rest of his family since Madoff Sr. got exposed and arrested.

But that counts for his victims as well of course..........h_ll on earth

may he RIP.

LaoPo

[geriatrickid]

The son apparently wasn't aware. He is the one that blew the whistle. According to the court documents, the two sons protested the father's decision to distribute millions of dollars in employee bonuses early. When confronted by the sons, the father confessed. The brothers then sought legal counsel who told them it had to be reported. The son lived under the fear of incarceration and and suffered a barrage of litigation for 2 years. All of his long time friends had invested and he lost them all. He finally cracked.

The sins of the father were visited upon the son. Mr. Madoff Sr. has been punished in a way more powerful than the courts could do. I anticipate that Bernard Madoff will now break under the strain and he will age rapidly in prison. He will live a personal hell for his remaining years.

[TAWP]

geriatrickid>> Fitting for him, sad about the son (and grandchild!).

Edited December 11, 2010 by TAWP

[asiawatcher]

Greed is always the motivator, the son sounds like a thousands times the man his father was. I feel really sad for his three children and wife left behind. That is the tragedy and maybe the old man now will do all justice and end his own life. As is often sprouted - what a tangle web we weave when first we practice to deceive. All so unnecessary.

[Scott]

My condolences to his family and friends. Another victim of the scandal.

[waza]

My condolences to the family, So sad for the son to suffer from the sins of the father, May he rest is peace.

[siampolee]

My sympathy goes to the charities and the old folk who had invested their slender means with the crook Madoff.

As a result of Madoffs long term fraud the usual state of affairs prevails and the rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer.

[Ulysses G.]

In this case, a lot of rich people got poorer, not too many poor people were investing with Bernie.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Ulysses G.

[lannarebirth]

My sympathy goes to the charities and the old folk who had invested their slender means with the crook Madoff.

As a result of Madoffs long term fraud the usual state of affairs prevails and the rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer.

The vast majority of Madoff's clients were themselves rich. His "unbelieveable" performance had long been a topic of conversation in NY financial circles. Most of his investors believed he had to be cheating in some manner but believed he was cheating on their behalf by frontrunning the order book of his marketmaking firm.

[cdnvic]

Troll post and reply removed

[siampolee]

quote Hard-hit Madoff investors cry foul as trustee demands repayment…

— Two years after his life savings were obliterated by Bernard Madoff's epic Ponzi scheme, retired ophthalmologist Gerald Blumenthal thought he had endured the worst of the financial upheaval.

He and his wife sold their Boca Raton home for a more affordable one in Boynton Beach. At 78, he got a job as a security guard in Broward County until the drive and late hours became too much. To pick up the slack, his 76-year-old wife heads to work each day as a preschool teacher.

While not the retirement they envisioned, they were getting by.

Then, last week, he got a phone call from his lawyer.

The court-appointed trustee who is liquidating Madoff's phony financial empire is demanding that Blumenthal pay back the money he withdrew from the IRA account he established with the once-revered financial manager decades ago.

"I guess they want me to be destitute," he said.

Having lost the lion's share of another Madoff account, he said can't afford to repay the money. More galling, is that he withdrew the money because he had to. Under IRS rules, people have to begin tapping their IRAs six months after their 70th birthdays.

"I had to withdraw the money because of the regulations of one government agency and now another arm of the government is trying to get it with a clawback?" asked Blumenthal, now 80. "That is cruel and unusual punishment. It's absolutely unconscionable."

Welcome to the never-ending nightmare that consumes thousands who entrusted their life savings to Madoff only to wake up on Dec. 11, 2008, to hear the part-time Palm Beacher's pronouncement that his decades-long operation was a scam.

This year's anniversary of the arrest that rocked the world comes with a particularly vicious twist.

It's the deadline for trustee Irving Picard to go after people, like Blumenthal, who withdrew more money from their accounts than they invested. In Picard's parlance, they are "net winners" and must return what he has labeled ill-gotten gains.

Picard has already filed a 57-page court document of the names of roughly 500 people and foundations he plans to go after. Few expect he is through.

The so-called clawback process has struck fear into the thousands of victims who have gotten back only a fraction of their nest eggs and now worry they will have to return money they no longer have.

"It's like going to bed every night knowing you could be facing the guillotine the next day," said Palm Beach resident Michael Stein, a World War II veteran who ran a successful women's apparel business in New York.

Stein's name is on the list Picard recently filed in bankruptcy court in New York City.

Like Blumenthal, Stein said the clawback is blatantly unfair. He said he used profits from his account to pay taxes on the investment and to give generously to charities. "If he claws back anything, he'll take my remaining assets," Stein said.

1,000 targeted for 'clawback'

Picard plans to file clawback lawsuits against about 1,000 people. The 1,000 are among the 2,700 people who got rejection letters when they requested up to $500,000 from the Securities Investor Protection Corp. The corporation, funded by brokerage houses, compensates victims of securities fraud.

"People are trembling," said Ron Stein, who founded the Network for Investor Action and Protection to help Madoff victims.

"The trustee has been pretty upfront about not going after small investors or innocent investors," said Ilene Kent, who joined Klein's organization after her elderly parents, who live in Palm Beach Gardens, lost much of their life savings. "But how do you define 'small' and how do you define 'innocent'?"

Until recently, Picard has focused on those who most agree profited handsomely from the scheme. He sued Barbara and the late Jeffry Picower for $7.2 billion, claiming the Palm Beach philanthropists had to know that annual returns of up to 950 percent had to be phony. He sued Madoff's wife, sons, brother Peter, who all worked in the investment house.

Facing next week's deadline to sue, Picard has stepped up efforts to recover cash that will be divided among the victims. He sued Madoff's sister, brother-in-law, nephew and Madoff's wife's sister and husband, who live in Palm Beach County, for nearly $5 million. He also sued JPMorgan Chase for $6.4 billion and UBS AG, a Swiss-based wealth management company, for $2 billion, claiming they were complicit in the fraud.

I wouldn't describe these people as rich by any means. Wonderful to have to start work again at the age of 78 and 76. due to the thief Madoff.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com

Edited December 13, 2010 by siampolee