Mark Madoff, a son of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, hanged himself in his upscale New York loft early Saturday morning, exactly two years after his father was arrested in the worst fraud in U.S. history.
New York Police Department spokesperson Paul Browne confirmed that the younger Madoff was found hanging in his Mercer Street apartment in New York's SoHo neighbourhood. A family member called police around 7:30 a.m.
A source close to the younger Madoff said that public scrutiny leading up to the two-year anniversary "became too much for him."
Another law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Madoff was found hanging in the $6-million loft by a dog leash in his living room, next to a bedroom where his two-year-old son was asleep.
Friends said that he had been having difficulty finding full employment following his father's conviction.
The official told The Associated Press that Madoff's wife, Stephanie, who is in Florida, became concerned after speaking with her husband late Friday or very early Saturday.
During the conversation, the source said, Madoff told his wife that someone should check on their son. Stephanie Madoff asked her father to check in at the home, where he found his son-in-law dead, his grandson asleep and a dog unharmed.
Madoff's lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum, released a written statement Saturday confirming the "terrible and unnecessary tragedy."
Mark Madoff, 46, and his brother Andrew both worked at their father's brokerage firm, but have not faced any charges in connection to his multi billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
While the Madoff sons had been named in probes regarding the crimes, law officials hadn't contacted them for more than a year about possible charges, a source told The Associated Press.
The elder Madoff is serving a 150-year jail term in a North Carolina prison after confessing his crimes to his sons. The brothers turned their father in on advice of the family's lawyers, and he was arrested at his Manhattan penthouse on Dec. 11, 2008.
Since their father's arrest, Mark and Andrew have lived under a cloud of suspicion and been dogged by reporters and paparazzi around New York, but have maintained that they knew nothing of their father's actions prior to his confession.
"Mark was an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo," Flumenbaum said. "We are all deeply saddened by this shocking turn of events."
Peter Chavkin, a lawyer for Mark's mother, said Ruth Madoff is "heartbroken." He offered no further comment.
Last year, a trustee appointed by the courts tasked with sifting through Madoff's financial affairs launched a US$200 million lawsuit against several family members, including Mark, Andrew and Bernie's brother Peter, accusing them of failing to notice the Ponzi scheme while financing their own lavish lifestyles.
The lawsuit specifically accused Mark Madoff of using $66 million of ill-begotten funds to purchase lavish homes in Manhattan, Nantucket and Connecticut.
Earlier this year, Mark Madoff's wife, Stephanie, filed a court request to legally change her last name, as well as that of her two children, because they had all received threats in the wake of the case.
With files from The Associated Press
