Mark Madoff
Mark Madoff
The eldest son of the biggest swindler in U.S. history, unable to stand another day of his soured life, hung himself with a dog leash Saturday in his multimillion-dollar SoHo condo.
In dire early morning emails to his wife on that day of the suicide, Madoff wrote that he was ready to end a high-flying life of privilege that hit rock bottom after his father's Dec. 11, 2008, arrest - exactly two years earlier.
"It basically sounded like he couldn't take it anymore," a source familiar with the emails told the Daily News.
"At one point he said something like, 'You'll have a better life if I'm not around...I love you.'"[-1]
Madoff - wearing khaki pants, a dark blue pullover shirt and white socks - knotted the black leash around a steel pole in a lighting rack on the living room ceiling, a police source indicated.
His lifeless body was discovered by his father-in-law, well-known lawyer Martin London, at 7:27 a.m. after a phone call from Madoff's alarmed wife.
Stephanie Morgan - who changed her name from Madoff earlier this year - feared something terrible was imminent.
She was vacationing at Disney Worldwith their 4-year-old daughter.
His imprisoned dad, Bernard Madoff, received word of the tragedy inside a federal prison in North Carolina.
Although Mark was never charged with any crimes in the Ponzi scheme, there was rampant speculation that he and brother Andrew were aware of the staggering scope of their father's scam.
The NYPD sought warrants yesterday to check Madoff's phone and computer - standard procedure in suicide investigations, a source said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is also seeking the records.
Madoff investment scandal
Prosecutors estimated the size of the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities fraud to be $64.8 billion, based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008. [-1]
The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud which was discovered in late 2008.
In December of that year, Bernard Madoff, the former NASDAQ Chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate Ponzi scheme.
Madoff founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and was its Chairman until his arrest. The firm employed Madoff's brother Peter as Senior Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer, Peter's daughter Shana Madoff as rules and compliance officer and attorney, and Madoff's sons Andrew and Mark. Peter has since been sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Mark committed suicide by hanging exactly two years after his father's arrest.
Alerted by his sons, federal authorities arrested Madoff on December 11, 2008.
On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes and admitted to operating the largest private Ponzi scheme in history.
On June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison with restitution of $170 billion.
According to the original federal charges, Madoff said that his firm had "liabilities of approximately US$ 50 billion". Prosecutors estimated the size of the fraud to be $64.8 billion, based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008. Ignoring opportunity costs and taxes paid on fictitious profits, half of Madoff's direct investors lost no money.
Investigators have determined others were involved in the scheme.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also come under fire for not investigating Madoff more thoroughly; questions about his firm had been raised as early as 1999. Madoff's business, in the process of liquidation, was one of the top market makers on Wall Street and in 2008, the sixth-largest.
Madoff's personal and business asset freeze created a chain reaction throughout the world's business and philanthropic community, forcing many organizations to at least temporarily close, including the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, the Picower Foundation, and the JEHT Foundation.