Bernie Madoff Left Behind Only Misery and Heartache
The disgraced financier’s elaborate fraud ruined the lives of his family and those of countless clients who depended on him.
His damage went well beyond dollars.
Photographer: Gino Domenico/Bloomberg
Bernie Madoff is dead, and it is unlikely that even the people who were once closest to him will shed a tear. Not his wife, Ruth, whose life was destroyed when Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was revealed in December 2008. Not his brother, Peter, Madoff’s former chief compliance officer, who spent nearly a decade in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of charges. Not his niece Shana, Peter Madoff’s daughter, who also worked in the compliance department. And certainly not his daughters-in-law or his grandchildren; both his sons died after he went to prison, one from suicide and the other from cancer.
By all appearances, Madoff loved his family deeply. He once held his son Mark’s hand for the duration of a dinner because Mark was going through a difficult divorce, according to Town & Country. But that turned out to be just another fraud. He had to know that once his decades-long Ponzi scheme came to light, it would be ruinous not just to his firm’s clients but to his family. The word “sociopath” is overused these days, but it fits Madoff to a tee. He had neither empathy nor a conscience. That’s the mentality required to rip off thousands of people who are depending on you.