Opinion: Bernie Madoff the abuser

Two years to the day that Bernard Madoff was arrested for his decades long, billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, Mark, one of his two sons committed suicide. This was not the first person Madoff destroyed — according to the New York Post at least three others affected by Madoff committed suicide — and Mark is not likely the last. The lives Bernie Madoff shattered number in the thousands. Many very smart people who invested in Madoff funds lost all their money, some lost their retirement funds, some their homes and some their entire financial future. There are Madoff investors who have had their lives terribly disrupted from broken hearts and now it is becoming clear that some are losing their lives.

A distant relative of mine recently passed away. He, an individual in his 80s had been a healthy, active working man until the scheme took all his and his clients’ money. For over a year he actively fought to return some of the funds and go on with his life. Three days after his cardiologist told him that he was physically well he passed away. According to his physician it was due to a broken heart.

The person who turned Bernie Madoff in to the authorities in 2009 was his elder son Mark, the same son who was found hanging from a dog leash. Mark was not the subject of a criminal investigation nor was he considered a suspect in devising or carrying out the largest financial scam in United States history. Although both he and his brother were named in civil suits because they allegedly profited from their father’s financial sins no rulings were expected. Many are speculating about Mark Madoff’s motivation to follow through with so horrible an act of desperation but one thing seems clear — Mark was more ethical than his father and simply could not live with the shame that his father brought to the family name.