Madoff disgrace 'drove son to suicide'

The eldest son of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff was found hanged in his Manhattan apartment on the second anniversary of the day his father was arrested in the worst investment fraud in American history.

Mark Madoff, 46, whose body was discovered yesterday, became another casualty of the saga that sent his father to prison and swindled thousands of their life savings.

Every day for two years, he had carried the toxic burden of a name that meant fraud to the world.

Mr Madoff was found hanging from a black dog leash in the living room of his SoHo, New York City, loft, while his two-year-old son slept nearby.

People close to him said he was despondent over press coverage of his father’s case, the continuing criminal investigation of Madoff family members in the multibillion-dollar scheme and his struggle to rebuild his life.

The intense scrutiny approaching the anniversary “became too much for him”, said a person who had recent contact with him, speaking anonymously.

The source said he was struggling to find steady employment and was upset by coverage of his father’s case, including a slew of stories in the past week about investor lawsuits.

Mr Madoff’s wife Stephanie sent her stepfather to the couple’s £3.8 million apartment after he emailed her at Disney World in Florida, where she was on holiday with their four-year-old daughter.

In the messages, he told her he loved her and that someone should check on their two-year-old son Nicholas, police said. He left no suicide note.

“This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy,” his lawyer Martin Flumenbaum said.

“Mark was an innocent victim of his father’s monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo.”

Mr Madoff and his brother Andrew, who told authorities that their father had confessed to them the day before he was arrested on December 11 2008, have said they were unaware of his crimes. But they have remained under investigation and had been named in the multiple civil lawsuits accusing them of profiting from the scheme.

Another law enforcement official said Mark Madoff’s arrest was not imminent and that investigators pursuing possible charges against him, his brother and uncle had not contacted him for more than a year.

Bernard Madoff, 72, swindled a long list of investors out of billions of dollars. He admitted that he ran his Ponzi scheme for at least two decades, cheating thousands of individuals, charities, celebrities and institutional investors.

Losses are estimated at around 20 billion dollars (£12.6bn), making it the biggest investment fraud in US history. He is serving a 150-year prison term in North Carolina.

The scandal has resulted in half a dozen arrests of Madoff associates and put a harsh light on members of the family, which has splintered since Madoff’s arrest. Both brothers had not spoken to their parents since they turned their father in.

The financier’s brother Peter played a prominent role in the family’s company. Mark and Andrew Madoff both worked on a trading desk at the firm, on a side of the business that was not directly involved in the pyramid scheme.

In February, Mark Madoff’s wife asked a court to change her last name and the last names of their two children to Morgan, saying her family had received threats and was humiliated by the scandal.

A year ago the court-appointed trustee trying to unravel Bernard Madoff’s financial affairs sued several relatives, including Mark, Andrew and Peter Madoff accusing them of failing to detect the fraud while living lavish lifestyles financed with the family’s ill-gotten fortune.

Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said she did not have specific information on whether Bernard Madoff had been informed of his son’s death or would be allowed to attend a service.

She said that generally, inmates were informed of a relative’s death as soon as the institution was made aware of it and that the bureau allowed leave for prisoners to attend memorial services.