The discovery of the body of a 46 year-old man was found lifeless, hanging by a dog lead in his Manhattan appartment in the SoHo neighbourhood is absolutely everywhere this morning. Tragically, on the second anniversary of his father's arrest in one of the most sensational fraud cases ever, Mark Madoff committed suicide.
In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to turning his wealth management business into a massive so-called Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors, including many leading charities, of billions of dollars. His son leaves behind four children, ages 18, 16, 4 and 2, and and a wife.
It was the incredible scale of the fraud, combined with the fact that it had been perpertrated for so long by a respected member of the Wall Street's stockbroking comminity that made Bernie one of the most famous white collar criminals in history. What he did was terrible. His scam resulted in thousands of ordinary people losing their entire life savings, and even some charities which had invested their endowments with Madoff's firm had to close down.
Amazingly, inspite of the fact that Bernie's firm had been embezzeling billions of dollars for more than two decades, the fraud was apparently unknown to his two sons, who worked for the business, nor his wife. We are led to beleive that he first confessed to his sons who reported him to the authorities. As the crime details of his crimes were unravelled, the world was stunned by the enormous sums of money involved. What had been seen as a respected New York Jewish family -- Bernie was a major benefactor -- had its reputation destroyed as the story unfolded.
We may never know the full truth. But Bernie, who is in his seventies, is now serving 150 years behind bars, his wife has been stripped of all her wealth and now tries to live a low-profile existence in Florida, and he leaves another son and grandchildren with the burden of shame in carrying the infamous name of Madoff. It is a sad, sad tale for all involved -- one of Shakesperian proportions.
I am spending my last day in Cancun enjoying the warm weather in anticipation to the cold norther climbs of Chicago where I will go tomorrow.
Grandpa Jonathan
Cancun, Mexico
