Why Mark Madoff committed suicide

Bernie Madoff's son, Mark, commits suicide

Excerpt:

It was Mark and younger brother Andrew who first heard their dad’s astonishing confession — and dropped a dime to the feds on one of the biggest investment fraud schemes in history.

"No one wants to hear the truth," the despondent 46-year-old scion wrote his lawyer in one of three wrenching emails dispatched around 4 a.m., a law enforcement source told The Post.

"Take care of my family."

In two messages sent to wife Stephanie he said, "I love you" — and then alerted her to "send someone to take care of Nick," the source said.

A freaked out Stephanie — at Disney World in Orlando with her mom and 4-year-old daughter, Audrey, at the time of the suicide — then dispatched her father, high-powered lawyer Martin London, to the apartment in the swank building that’s home to rocker Jon Bon Jovi.

London made the grisly discovery and called 911, said police sources.

No note was found with Madoff’s body; he was clad in khaki pants, blue pullover shirt and white socks, sources said.

The eldest son of Bernie, Mark was "upset" over the two-year anniversary media coverage of his father’s massive fraud and subsequent arrest on Dec. 11, 2008, the source said, noting a front-page story of the scheme and its aftermath in today’s Wall Street Journal

Comment:

Mark Madoff Dogged by Picard Suit

Excerpt:

"Mark Madoff lived a high-end lifestyle with homes in Manhattan, Nantucket, and Greenwich, Conn. Investment firm funds paid for all aspects of his lavish lifestyle from the purchases of his high-end homes to the mattress and box spring he slept on, the television he watched in his home gym, and the outdoor shower in his home," the lawsuit said.

According to Mr. Picard, Mark received "astronomical compensation"— $29.3 million from 2001 to 2008, including bonuses of $4.8 million in 2006 and more than $9 million in 2007.

He said Mark deposited a total of $745,482 into seven customer accounts he held and his family held, but redeemed $18.1 million.

"It was—or at the very least, should have been—obvious to Mark that the massive gains reflected in his customer account statements did not reflect actual securities transactions or market conditions," the suit said.

Comment: Self-homicide is always wrong - "Thou shalt not kill" (which includes killing of self!). This obviously is a tragedy and I do not wish to minimize this fact: the loss of a father, a husband, a son, a brother. And I do not know exactly why Mark Madoff committed suicide. But this much is clear, no investor has an expectation of his investment being multiplied by 24! He must have been in on his father's Ponzi scheme!

Madoff name changed to "Gladon"

Madoff's daughter-in-law wants her name changed

Excerpt:

A Madoff in-law has filed for a name change, hoping to rid herself of the notorious moniker that has become synonymous with swindle.

Stephanie Madoff, daughter-in-law of the imprisoned Bernard Madoff, filed for a name change with the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, citing death threats against her family.

Stephanie, who is married to Bernard's son Mark, is seeking to change the surname of herself and her two young children to Morgan. In court documents, she said she "wishes to avoid additional embarrassment, harassment and endangerment associated with the name 'Madoff.'"

Stephanie's infant daughter and son - the grandchildren of Bernard - will retain Madoff as a middle name, but their last name will be changed to Morgan, according to the documents.

Comment: OK ... it's actually Morgan!

Bernie's IT guys and "House 17"

Excerpt:

Two former employees for Bernard Madoff programmed an old IBM computer to generate false records that concealed the money manager's massive Ponzi scheme and were given hush money when they threatened to stop lying, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Madoff gave orders to pay the pair "whatever they wanted to keep them happy," a criminal complaint said.

The computer programmers, Jerome O'Hara, of Malverne, N.Y., and George Perez, of East Brunswick, N.J., were arrested Friday at their homes. They were to appear in a Manhattan court to face conspiracy, falsifying records and other charges.

"Without the help of O'Hara and Perez, the Madoff fraud would not have been possible," George S. Canellos, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's New York Regional Office, said in a statement.

Their attorneys did not immediately return calls for comment.

Prosecutors alleged that O'Hara and Perez were hired by Madoff's firm in the early 1990s to develop and maintain programs using a computer known as "House 17." The programs allowed Madoff to generate account statements for thousands of clients "that purported to confirm the purchases of securities that, in fact, had not been purchased," the complaint said.

Madoff and his chief financial officer, Frank DiPascali, directed the defendants to use their computer skills to produce other false documents designed to deceive the SEC. The agency brought similar charges against the men on Friday in a parallel civil complaint.

In what the SEC called "a crisis of conscience" in 2006, O'Hara and Perez deleted 218 of the 225 special programs from the House 17 computer, and withdrew thousands of dollars from their own accounts with the firm, authorities said.

Comment: You know that IT guys had to be behind perpetuating the fraud. Jail time needed for those guys. By the way ... where was the audit department? Risk management? Etc.

Eccentricities & Secrets

How Bernie did it

Excerpt:

Bernie had his quirks, and to a startling extent they colored the firm -- quite literally when it came to the décor. Virtually every piece of furniture, equipment, or decoration was black or gray. That extended even to the pushpins in employees' cubicles. "Bernie had the manufacturer just send boxes of black ones," says Bob McMahon, a former employee.

Comment: Worthwhile read. He will have fun in jail for the remainder of his life

Madoff bites Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo Says Madoff Scheme Cost Bank $294 Million

Excerpt:

Wells Fargo & Co. wrote off $294 million because Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme wiped out some of its customers and left them unable to pay loans, said Chief Financial Officer Howard Atkins.

“This is not our exposure to Madoff, this is our exposure to customers of ours who had investments in Madoff,” Atkins said today in an interview after the company announced fourth-quarter results, which included the pretax charge tied to Madoff. “They’ve gone from being wealthy to not having any money,” Atkins said. He didn’t say how many were involved.

Comment: Yet Bernie is still under house arrest in his multimillion dollar apartment!

Bilked by "the Grand Falloon"

The Rules That Madoff’s Investors Ignored

Excerpts:

Delivering 20 percent every year for 30 years would have been too hard to believe (and pay out) while 5 percent would have sent most people searching for more elsewhere. Returning 10 to 12 percent year after year was a stroke of genius: it was within the realm of possibility, if just barely.

The point is that the mistakes his investors made are ones that anyone could make. While the stories of so much money lost are tragic, none had to occur. Much of this loss could have been prevented if people had questioned what they were doing.

1. THE 10 PERCENT RULE: ... The most basic book on investing will tell you never to put more than 5 or 10 percent into any one investment, particularly one meant to preserve wealth.
   
2. CONSISTENCY IS BAD: ... There are too many variables that inhibit being great on a regular basis. ... Good investment advisers plan for a modest return over the years. They know that one year they will get you 11 percent, the next year 6 percent and the year after that lose you 2 percent — so count on 5 percent. Mr. Madoff’s returns were too good to be true, but no one wanted to believe that.
   
3. THE GRAND FALLOON: ... just because someone is a good golfer does not mean he should be trusted to invest your money. Private bankers are forever telling their clients not to try to get into someone’s hedge fund just because you enjoyed their conversation on the course — or, worse, want to play with them again. Like taking care of your health, picking an investment adviser should be done with the utmost rigor.
   
4. ‘DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL’: ... But nothing in which you are putting millions of dollars is so wonderful that it cannot withstand scrutiny.
   
5. PUT MONEY IN BUCKETS: ... follow__ the popular wisdom of private bank investment strategists: divide your money into buckets to insure the money you need to live on will always be safe.
   
   

Comment: Madoff ought to be in jail .. not in house arrest. "THE GRAND FALLOON Kurt Vonnegut coined this phrase in “Cat’s Cradle,” and never did it have a more devastating application than in the Madoff scheme. In Vonnegut’s world, a grand falloon was a false association mistaken for friendship — two people from the same town, same university, same company meet somewhere and believe that coincidental connection has significant meaning."

Don't look to me as any kind of investment guru because I am not. I have made some money and lost some money. My rules are: 1.) Consistent investing; 2.) Diversity (Mutual funds, EFTS, savings (CD's), some coins); 3.) Asking tough questions and looking for full accountability.