Academic

Though I'm continuously surprised by how fast time flies, I really can't believe that it's been 2 years since Bernard Madoff was arrested for perpetrating a $60 billion fraud.  I doubt, however, that this anniversary has escaped anyone's notice, marked by a runup in media attention the last two weeks.  First, trustee Irving Picard began filing the last lawsuits against investors, feeder funds and banks before the statute of limitations ran on Saturday.  The Wall Street Journal was preparing this "where are they now" piece on the Madoffs and others to run on Saturday.  Then, Saturday morning's news turned tragic as Mark Madoff, Bernie Madoff's son, committed suicide in the early morning while his wife and four year-old son were returning from Disney World.  His two year-old son was asleep in the apartment.  Mark Madoff has two other children from a previous marriage.

If Medea or Joan Crawford stand as symbols of bad mothering, then Bernie Madoff has to become shorthand for the worst father in the world.  He either (i) built the world's biggest Ponzi scheme in front of his two sons and raised them to have no moral qualms with stealing folks' money or (ii)  built the world's biggest Ponzi scheme and lived a lie in front of them, not caring that at some point before or after his death they would have to deal with the fallout of a collapsed scheme.  I tend to believe the latter, so my heart goes out to Mark Madoff's family.  Yes, even if in the dark, he lived an extremely good life because of his salary from the market-making arm of his father's enterprise and surely from the collateral effects of his father's criminal enterprise.  Just like the innocent investors in BLMIS, who rode the Madoff Ponzi wave for years, even decades, until the music stopped, the Madoff sons also benefitted from the scheme.  And, as some investors who were "net winners" have been sued for clawbacks, so have the Madoff sons.  But the sons have also faced wrath and bitterness and the stigma of their name.

In his final days, Mark Madoff was sued again by Picard in his capacity as a director in Madoff's London investment arm.  This lawsuit also named Mark Madoff's children.