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Bernie Madoff's Sister And Husband Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide
Bernie Madoff's sister Sondra Wiener and her husband Marvin Wiener were found dead of gunshot wounds in an apparent murder-suicide in Florida.
Wall Street scammer Bernie Madoff’s sister and her husband have been found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Florida.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office announced in a Sunday statement that two elderly Boynton Beach residents, an 87-year-old woman and a 90-year-old man, were found dead from gunshot wounds on Thursday.
“After further investigation it appears to be a murder/suicide,” they stated.
They identified the woman as Sondra Wiener, the sister of Madoff. The sheriff’s office did not release the full name of the man, noting that his family has invoked Marsy’s Law, a law that protects victims of crime. However, they did release his first name, Marvin, and the Sun-Sentinel identified him as Wiener’s husband Marvin Weiner.
The sheriff's office said the causes of death will ultimately be determined by the medical examiner. They have not yet identified who orchestrated the apparent murder-suicide.
Madoff ran the largest Ponzi scheme ever in the United States, defrauding thousands of people out of billions of dollars with a now-notorious investment scam. He was sentenced to spend 150 years in prison in 2009 after being convicted of a slew of fraud charges. Madoff died in prison last year at the age of 82.
Sondra Wiener’s son, David, told the New York Post in 2009 that she was also one of Madoff’s victims. An unnamed neighbor source told the outlet that she had lost about $3 million as a result of his scheme.
“It seems like she was a victim in this,” the source said, as Sondra put her home on the market following her brother's troubles. “It didn’t seem like she saw it coming. What kind of person scams their own sister?”
Her son Charles Wiener worked at Madoff Securities since 1978. Sondra’s brother-in-law Peter Wiener was sentenced to 10 years in 2012 for his involvement in the Ponzi scheme. He was released from prison in 2019.
Madoff’s two sons, both of whom worked for his firm, are also dead. Mark Madoff died by suicide in 2010 and Andrew died of cancer in 2014, CNN reports.
