New York:
Mark Madoff, the older of Bernard L. Madoff's two sons, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Saturday, the second anniversary of the day his father was arrested for running a gigantic Ponzi scheme that shattered thousands of lives around the world.
"Mark Madoff took his own life today," Martin Flumenbaum, the man's lawyer, said in a statement on Saturday. "This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy."
Mr. Madofff was discovered inside an apartment at 158 Mercer Street, according to two law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was in its nascent stages.
A city official said the 911 call came in at 7:28 a.m., and was routed to the Emergency Medical Service, as a medical call. The body was hanging from its neck by a dog leash - which was attached to a pipe in the ceiling of the apartment, one law enforcement official said. According to the official, a family member discovered the body and called 911.
Mr. Madoff, who was 46, had worked at his father's brokerage firm since his graduation from the University of Michigan in 1987. The steps that led to his father's arrest began when he and his brother, Andrew, confronted their father over his plans to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to employees months ahead of schedule.
That led to a private conversation on Dec. 10, 2008, in which Bernard Madoff told his sons that their entire lives - all the wealth and success the family seemed to possess - were based on a lie. His apparently lucrative money-management business was nothing but an immense Ponzi scheme, and it was crumbling under the relentless pressures of the financial crisis of late 2008.
Mark and his brother immediately consulted a lawyer and were advised they had to report their father's confession to law enforcement. They did so, and the following morning their father was arrested at his Manhattan penthouse.
The public fury over the stunning crime - whose losses Bernard Madoff himself estimated at $50 billion - was not limited to its mastermind. Mark Madoff, his mother and his brother were all the subject of constant media speculation. Some blogs repeatedly predicted their imminent arrest, and many articles speculated that they had been involved in their father's crime, or at least were aware of it.
But charges have not been filed against any of the immediate family members, and their lawyer has said publicly that neither Mark nor his brother has ever been notified by prosecutors that they were the subjects of a criminal investigation.
A person close to Mark Madoff said he had been increasingly distraught as the anniversary of his father's arrest approached, and he had been upset at some recent news coverage speculating that criminal charges against him and his brother were still likely.
Mr. Flumenbaum, in his statement, called Mark "an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo."
"Mark Madoff took his own life today," Martin Flumenbaum, the man's lawyer, said in a statement on Saturday. "This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy."
Mr. Madofff was discovered inside an apartment at 158 Mercer Street, according to two law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was in its nascent stages.
A city official said the 911 call came in at 7:28 a.m., and was routed to the Emergency Medical Service, as a medical call. The body was hanging from its neck by a dog leash - which was attached to a pipe in the ceiling of the apartment, one law enforcement official said. According to the official, a family member discovered the body and called 911.
Mr. Madoff, who was 46, had worked at his father's brokerage firm since his graduation from the University of Michigan in 1987. The steps that led to his father's arrest began when he and his brother, Andrew, confronted their father over his plans to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to employees months ahead of schedule.
That led to a private conversation on Dec. 10, 2008, in which Bernard Madoff told his sons that their entire lives - all the wealth and success the family seemed to possess - were based on a lie. His apparently lucrative money-management business was nothing but an immense Ponzi scheme, and it was crumbling under the relentless pressures of the financial crisis of late 2008.
Mark and his brother immediately consulted a lawyer and were advised they had to report their father's confession to law enforcement. They did so, and the following morning their father was arrested at his Manhattan penthouse.
The public fury over the stunning crime - whose losses Bernard Madoff himself estimated at $50 billion - was not limited to its mastermind. Mark Madoff, his mother and his brother were all the subject of constant media speculation. Some blogs repeatedly predicted their imminent arrest, and many articles speculated that they had been involved in their father's crime, or at least were aware of it.
But charges have not been filed against any of the immediate family members, and their lawyer has said publicly that neither Mark nor his brother has ever been notified by prosecutors that they were the subjects of a criminal investigation.
A person close to Mark Madoff said he had been increasingly distraught as the anniversary of his father's arrest approached, and he had been upset at some recent news coverage speculating that criminal charges against him and his brother were still likely.
Mr. Flumenbaum, in his statement, called Mark "an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo."
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