11-12-2010, 08:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-12-2010, 09:12 PM by Peter Lemkin.)
Bernard Madoff's son Mark found hanged [hanging by the dog's leash]
Mark Madoff found hanged in New York, two years to the day after his father turned himself in over billion-dollar fraud
Edward Helmore in New York
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 11 December 2010 15.34 GMT
Article history
Bernard Madoff (left) with his wife Ruth and son Mark, who was found dead in his New York apartment. Photograph: GI/BM/Getty Images
Mark Madoff, the eldest son of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, has been found hanged in his downtown Manhattan apartment on the second anniversary of the day his father turned himself in to authorities.
His death, which was reported to the police by his father-in-law at 7.30am today, came days after he was named in a new lawsuit by the liquidators of his father's empire.
"He was found hanged in his apartment. It was an apparent suicide," police spokesman Paul Browne said. But authorities said he left no suicide note.
Mark Madoff and his brother, Andrew, were under investigation but had not faced any criminal charges in the $50bn (£31bn) Ponzi scheme that led to their father being jailed.
His death also came on the cut-off date for trustees looking to clawback losses from the fraud to file final lawsuits.
On Wednesday, Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities, the fraudster's main US firm, named all the directors of the London subsidiary in a new lawsuit.
The high court complaint – which named Mark and his brother Andrew, their uncle Peter, as well as Sonja Kohn, who has been charged separately for other Madoff-related fraud – will attempt to recoup $80m (£50.5bn).
The move to open Bernard Madoff's London operations to scrutiny once again followed the decision by the Serious Fraud Office in February not to take any action against Madoff Securities International (MSIL) or its directors due to "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction".
On 11 December 2008, Bernard Madoff summoned his sons to his home to tell them his investment business was "one big lie".
Mark and Andrew both worked on a trading desk at the firm, on a side of the business that was not directly involved in the Ponzi scheme.
"Mark remains unalterably bitter about his father's deception and the injury his father has caused," a spokeswoman for the two men told the Wall Street Journal last week. "Andy was also deeply impacted by his father's deception."
Neither had talked with his father or mother in two years. That decision, she said, was made out of choice and also because of legal threats still hanging over the men.
A year ago Picard sued several members of the family, including the brothers, accusing them of failing to detect the fraud while living lavish lifestyles financed with the family's ill-gotten fortune.
The lawsuit accused Mark Madoff of using $66m (£41.7m) he received improperly to buy luxury homes in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mark and his wife Stephanie bought a $6.5m home in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 2008. It is currently for sale.
After the initial furore of the scandal died down, Mark tried unsuccessfully to get a job in trading before starting a company making applications for iPads.
But the taint of the scandal could not easily be brushed off. His wife found the glare of publicity and the notoriety attached to her partner's name so uncomfortable she changed her name from Madoff to Morgan.
Mark recently had been using an email address that does not include his first or last name, a friend noted.
In March last year, Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 counts of fraud and was subsequently sentenced to the maximum of 150 years behind bars for fleecing hundreds of investors out of tens of billions of dollars. The scam is widely referred to as the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
Just before he was sentenced, he said: "I am responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain. I understand that. I live in a tormented state now, knowing of all the pain and suffering that I have created."
-------------------------------------------- :elefant:
– Before the suicide of his son, this was shaping up to be the big Bernie Madoff story of the day: A Vienna banker who once called herself one of the Ponzi scheme's biggest victims may in reality have been Madoff's biggest conspirator. The trustee handling the investigation accuses Sonja Kohn of funneling billions of dollars from European investors Madoff's way in exchange for $62 million in kickbacks that she insisted on receiving in person, report the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
“In Sonja Kohn, Madoff found a criminal soul mate, whose greed and dishonest inventiveness equaled his own,” wrote trustee Irving Picard, who's been filing a crush of lawsuits ahead of tonight's midnight deadline. Kohn's alleged role has been previously reported, but Picard's lawsuit clarifies its scope and says she knew Madoff was a fraud from the get-go. They first met in the 1980s when she worked in New York as a Merrill Lynch stock broker. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Mark Madoff found hanged in New York, two years to the day after his father turned himself in over billion-dollar fraud
Edward Helmore in New York
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 11 December 2010 15.34 GMT
Article history
Bernard Madoff (left) with his wife Ruth and son Mark, who was found dead in his New York apartment. Photograph: GI/BM/Getty Images
Mark Madoff, the eldest son of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, has been found hanged in his downtown Manhattan apartment on the second anniversary of the day his father turned himself in to authorities.
His death, which was reported to the police by his father-in-law at 7.30am today, came days after he was named in a new lawsuit by the liquidators of his father's empire.
"He was found hanged in his apartment. It was an apparent suicide," police spokesman Paul Browne said. But authorities said he left no suicide note.
Mark Madoff and his brother, Andrew, were under investigation but had not faced any criminal charges in the $50bn (£31bn) Ponzi scheme that led to their father being jailed.
His death also came on the cut-off date for trustees looking to clawback losses from the fraud to file final lawsuits.
On Wednesday, Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities, the fraudster's main US firm, named all the directors of the London subsidiary in a new lawsuit.
The high court complaint – which named Mark and his brother Andrew, their uncle Peter, as well as Sonja Kohn, who has been charged separately for other Madoff-related fraud – will attempt to recoup $80m (£50.5bn).
The move to open Bernard Madoff's London operations to scrutiny once again followed the decision by the Serious Fraud Office in February not to take any action against Madoff Securities International (MSIL) or its directors due to "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction".
On 11 December 2008, Bernard Madoff summoned his sons to his home to tell them his investment business was "one big lie".
Mark and Andrew both worked on a trading desk at the firm, on a side of the business that was not directly involved in the Ponzi scheme.
"Mark remains unalterably bitter about his father's deception and the injury his father has caused," a spokeswoman for the two men told the Wall Street Journal last week. "Andy was also deeply impacted by his father's deception."
Neither had talked with his father or mother in two years. That decision, she said, was made out of choice and also because of legal threats still hanging over the men.
A year ago Picard sued several members of the family, including the brothers, accusing them of failing to detect the fraud while living lavish lifestyles financed with the family's ill-gotten fortune.
The lawsuit accused Mark Madoff of using $66m (£41.7m) he received improperly to buy luxury homes in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mark and his wife Stephanie bought a $6.5m home in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 2008. It is currently for sale.
After the initial furore of the scandal died down, Mark tried unsuccessfully to get a job in trading before starting a company making applications for iPads.
But the taint of the scandal could not easily be brushed off. His wife found the glare of publicity and the notoriety attached to her partner's name so uncomfortable she changed her name from Madoff to Morgan.
Mark recently had been using an email address that does not include his first or last name, a friend noted.
In March last year, Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 counts of fraud and was subsequently sentenced to the maximum of 150 years behind bars for fleecing hundreds of investors out of tens of billions of dollars. The scam is widely referred to as the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
Just before he was sentenced, he said: "I am responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain. I understand that. I live in a tormented state now, knowing of all the pain and suffering that I have created."
-------------------------------------------- :elefant:
– Before the suicide of his son, this was shaping up to be the big Bernie Madoff story of the day: A Vienna banker who once called herself one of the Ponzi scheme's biggest victims may in reality have been Madoff's biggest conspirator. The trustee handling the investigation accuses Sonja Kohn of funneling billions of dollars from European investors Madoff's way in exchange for $62 million in kickbacks that she insisted on receiving in person, report the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
“In Sonja Kohn, Madoff found a criminal soul mate, whose greed and dishonest inventiveness equaled his own,” wrote trustee Irving Picard, who's been filing a crush of lawsuits ahead of tonight's midnight deadline. Kohn's alleged role has been previously reported, but Picard's lawsuit clarifies its scope and says she knew Madoff was a fraud from the get-go. They first met in the 1980s when she worked in New York as a Merrill Lynch stock broker. Her whereabouts are unknown.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass