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Years After The Bernie Madoff Scandal, Where Is The Madoff Family Now?
The family of Bernie Madoff, who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in American history, is no stranger to premature deaths and controversy.
The Madoff family has been shrouded in scandal and tragedy. Notoriously, Bernie 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.
In 2020, the CNBC series "American Greed" highlighted his life behind bars, with fellow prisoner Shawn Evans telling the cameras that other inmates treated the disgraced businessman with respect. "It's Mr. Madoff that, Mr. Madoff this, not 'Inmate' or your number," Evans said.
It was while Madoff was in prison that he died of chronic kidney disease on April 14, 2021 at the age of 82.
But the financier wasn't the only Madoff family member to die in the years following the collapse of his Ponzi scheme.
Bernie Madoff and his wife Ruth Madoff’s son Mark Madoff died by suicide at the age of 46 in 2010. He took his life on the two-year anniversary of his father’s arrest.
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The New York Times' sources said that Mark had grown increasingly distraught over the fallout of his father's arrest, which impacted his own reputation, even though he and his brother, Andrew, had turned their own father over to the FBI.
Then, in February 2022, Bernie's sister Sondra Weiner, 87, and her husband Marvin Wiener, 90, were fatally shot in a possible murder-suicide. Relatives and neighbors told the New York Post in 2009 that she was one of Madoff’s victims and that the couple lost about $3 million as a result of his scheme.
But what about other relatives of the Madoff family? Where are they now?
Ruth Madoff is still alive, living a comfortable life, as the New York Post reported earlier this year. That being said, it’s not as luxurious as the life as she lived more than a decade ago when she had access to her late husband’s $27 million private jet and 88-foot megayacht.
Then again, she’s not exactly living a modest life either. Since 2020, she has been living in a 4,000-square-foot Old Greenwich, Connecticut waterfront home valued at $3.8 million, according to the tabloid Daily Mail. It’s reportedly owned by Susan Elkin, Mark's first wife who is now married Richard Elkin, head of water management company Gotham Technologies.
According to the New York Post, Ruth is still worth more than $2.5 million.
Bernie and Ruth’s other son, Andrew, 48, died of a rare form of cancer (mantle-cell lymphoma) in 2014. Both siblings worked at Bernie’s firm and were not charged with any crime. In fact, as the New York Post points out, they helped notify the authorities about Bernie’s wrongdoings.
“By all evidence, they felt bitter anger to their father until the days they died,” Andrew Kirtzman, author of “Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff,” told the New York Post. “Andrew blamed his recurring cancer on stress brought on by his father. Mark left a suicide note that blamed Bernie.”
At the time of his death, Andrew was engaged to Catherine Hooper, a New York-based life coach. She was by Andrew's side when he and Ruth Madoff promoted their authorized biography "Truth and Consequences," written by Laurie Sandell.
Mark’s widow and second wife, Stephanie Madoff Mack, also wrote a book in 2011 called “The End of Normal,” which documents her life with the family and her husband’s suicide. According to the New York Post, she lives in Brooklyn and worked as a wardrobe stylist.
Bernie’s brother Peter, former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities chief compliance officer, was sentenced to a decade behind bars for falsifying documents and lying to authorities. After serving nine years, he was released in 2020 and now lives with his wife in West Palm Beach, according to the Daily Mail. Peter’s daughter Shana, who worked for the firm as a compliance officer but was never charged, now has a yoga studio in Connecticut.
Bernie and Ruth had six grandchildren all of who apparently all changed their last names to avoid any association with their notorious grandfather, according to Town & Country.
