Madoff's son died amid talk of prosecution

Mark Madoff was found dead two years after his father's arrest, write Philip Sherwell and Richard Blackden.
NEW YORK: Mark Madoff's world collapsed two years ago - along with that of thousands of investors who had trusted their savings to his father, Bernard, a titan of Wall Street.
Mr Madoff and his younger brother, Andrew, had been raised as part of a gilded New York family, amid the wealth and status befitting their father's apparent genius as a money manager.

The two sons joined the brokerage from college and rose to senior positions in the family business, whose clients ranged from the Hollywood director Steven Spielberg through billion-dollar trust funds to retirees investing their life savings.
But it was all based on a lie, perhaps the biggest financial lie. On December 11, 2008, to the disbelief of the business world and the horror of his clients, Bernard Madoff was arrested before breakfast in his pyjamas at his $US17 million penthouse for conducting the world's biggest scam.
Until then, Mark Madoff had seemed to have it all - an attractive wife, two young children, an apartment in the fashionable SoHo district of Manhattan and a multimillion-dollar lifestyle.
But on Saturday, on the second anniversary of his father's arrest, just three days after he was named in a civil lawsuit and amid intensifying speculation that he would face criminal charges, he was found dead in that apartment.
It was the latest tragic twist to a scandal that has ruined countless lives and prompted a number of suicides. Friends said he had been in an ''increasingly fragile state of mind''.
The discovery of his body was made shortly before 7.30am by his father-in-law. He had gone to the apartment after Mr Madoff's wife, Stephanie, who was in Florida, became fearful for his well-being because of an exchange of emails and calls in which he said ''someone should check'' on their two year-old son.
The toddler was found sleeping in an adjoining bedroom. The couple also had a four year-old child, who is with Mrs Madoff in Florida.
No suicide note was immediately found and there was no sign of foul play.
''Mark Madoff took his own life today,'' his lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum, said.
''This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy. He is an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo.''
Another friend said Mr Madoff had not spoken with his parents for two years and had tried unsuccessfully to get a Wall Street trading job.
Mark, 46, and Andrew, 44, both insisted they knew nothing of their father's crimes before
he told them on December 10, 2008, that he was operating a $US50 billion scam that was crumbling under the pressures of the financial crisis.
The sons immediately reported their father to the authorities and have consistently expressed outrage and sorrow at his actions.
The sons' roles have been scrutinised by investigators, and US media reported this month that they were the subject of a criminal tax-fraud inquiry. In a separate legal development, they were sued in London last week by Irving Picard, the trustee recovering assets for people swindled by their father.
Bernard Madoff, 72, is serving 150 years in a federal prison in North Carolina for running the so-called Ponzi scheme with which he used the money of new investors to pay annual returns of existing clients. The final tally for the losses is estimated at between $US18 billion and $US65 billion.
A person close to Mark Madoff told The New York Times he had been increasingly distraught as the anniversary of his father's arrest approached and was upset by recent news coverage speculating that criminal charges against him and his brother were still likely.
Three days before his death, Mark, as well as Andrew, and Peter Madoff, Bernard's brother, were hit by new legal action filed in London. Mr Picard, who is trying to recover billions of dollars, alleges that Madoff Securities International Ltd, the British arm of Madoff's empire, was part of the elaborate deception. All three men were directors of the company.
On Friday Mr Picard filed suit against Medici Bank, an Austrian bank, and its owner, Sonja Kohn, alleging she was a ''criminal soulmate'' of Madoff and seeking almost $US20 billion.
Ms Kohn has described herself as one of the fraud's biggest victims.
Mark Madoff had agreed not to sell or transfer certain assets pending the outcome of earlier legal action by Mr Picard.
His mother, Ruth, was allowed to keep $US2.5 million as part of a settlement last year in which she forfeited claims to $US80 million of assets. She is reportedly living in Florida and working delivering meals to housebound people.
In the ultimate indignity, family possessions - ranging from Mrs Madoff's jewellery to her husband's monogrammed slippers - were auctioned last month to raise money for victims.

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