Madoff's Last Living Son Dies Of Cancer
The sole living son of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff has reportedly died after a battle with cancer. Andrew Madoff, who had long maintained his innocence of any wrongdoing associated with his father's massive fraud, passed away after losing a long fight against mantle cell lymphoma. His brother Mark Madoff committed suicide in December 2010 - nearly two years to the date after his father's arrest for the largest Ponzi scheme in history. With Andrew Madoff's death, both of Bernard Madoff's children have now preceded him in death following their father's imprisonment.
Both Andrew and Mark Madoff were the targets of litigation filed by the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for Madoff's failed brokerage firm seeking the return of more than $200 million withdrawn from Madoff' scheme. The litigation, which also named Madoff's brother and niece, was amended in November 2013 seeking to highlight certain facts that demonstrated the Madoffs' knowledge of their father's scheme, including revelations that each of the Madoff kin received tens of millions of dollars in transfers from Madoff, and also maintained investment accounts in which they withdrew amounts far in excess of their invested principal, making them "net winners" under applicable terminology. Indeed, Madoff's brother, Peter, managed to withdraw more than $16 million from his investment account despite investing only $32,146 - including only $14 after December 1995.
Peter Madoff is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to several fraud charges relating to his role as the former chief compliance officer at Madoff's firm - a role that prosecutors alleged served merely as a blank check for Bernard Madoff to conduct his scheme with impunity.
Ironically, Mark and Andrew Madoff were responsible for turning their father in to criminal authorities after he confessed that he was operating a Ponzi scheme with liabilities of $50 billion. Neither have ever been accused of criminal wrongdoing.