before dad’s billion-dollar Ponzi scheme was exposed
New York Daily News
By Jonathan Lemire and James Fanelli
December 11th 2010Mark Madoff, the handsome prince of Bernie Madoff’s ill-gotten kingdom, lived the sweet life before his father’s $65 billion scam imploded. During one three-month period in 2008, he racked up more than $77,000 chartering private jets to hopscotch around the country. He vacationed at his $6.5 million, 3.3 acre retreat in Nantucket and a stately farmhouse in tony Greenwich, Conn. The seasoned fly fishermen also frequently planned outdoor excursions.
"Mark loved his lifestyle, loved the fact he could fly on a private jet or walk into Dunhill and spend $200 on an umbrella," a trader told Vanity Fair in 2009. His family life seemed just as enviable. The 46-year-old had been happily married since 2003 to his second wife, Stephanie, a stunning blonde who was a rising star in the fashion industry. The couple had two young children and raised them in an exclusive SoHo building that rocker Jon Bon Jovi also called home…
But the high life vanished exactly two years ago Saturday, when he and his brother turned their father into the feds. After his dad’s arrest, Mark Madoff and his family became pariahs, and many victims believed he was complicit in the Ponzi scheme. He and his family suffered death threats. A fusillade of lawsuits – including a $200 million claim by Bernie Madoff’s bankruptcy trustee – has also restricted his spending and movement of finances.
I guess I thought of the family as complicit in the scheme, whether they knew about it or not – living the high life based on Daddy’s Money; "stunning wife," "exclusive SoHo building," "stately farmhouse in tony Greenich, Conn.," "chartering private jets to hopscotch …"
The Madoff stigma became so bad that even his wife turned her back on his family’s name. Last February, she petitioned a Manhattan judge to change her last name to Morgan. Friends said Mark Madoff buckled under the infamy, withdrawing socially, obsessing over news accounts and fearing the possibility he would be criminally charged one day. The stress exacerbated a chronic stomach-pain condition and frayed his marriage, according to reports.
I know I don’t personally see a great deal of difference between Bernie Madoff and the Hedge Fund Managers or bonus-rich CEOs who live that life. It all seems like a scam to me – filtering money out of our economy to pay for such an excessive lifestyle. But as I think about it, my feeling about Mark Madoff is something else. He seemed locked into the life that was created for him. If two years ago he had thrown his "stuff" into the mix of the Madoff estate, moved to Painted Rock Alabama [maybe with some arbitrary name], and gotten a real job – I’d feel differently. So would he. Instead, he committed suicide with his two year old son Nicholas in the next room – trapped in SoHo, a prisoner of Madoff. Apparently all he could see was the cracks in the mirror.
This is the stuff of trans-generational psychopathology, but probably not directly because of the sins of the fathers. I expect Mark didn’t really know who he was, and didn’t know he didn’t know until 2 years ago. I doubt that it was Bernie and Ruth’s ill-gotten wealth or even their fall from grace that lead to his suicide. It was likely more in their failure to teach Mark how to find a self and a life of his own [probably because they were never taught themselves]. Let’s hope the now Ms. Stephanie Morgan can help Nicholas escape the Madoff family curse…
Your last paragraph is important. The media naturally focuses on the external things that are so dramatic and compelling. But it’s the inner sense of self, or lack thereof, that is the crucial determinant.