Financial crimes can equal murder

See all Bernie Madoff posts.

Madoff Investor’s Suicide Leaves Questions
By ALEX BERENSON and MATTHEW SALTMARSH
New York Times
January 1, 2009

In the days after Bernard L. Madoff was arrested and accused of orchestrating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, one of his investors — Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet — struggled with his role in the fraud.

Mr. de la Villehuchet, a French aristocrat and professional investor who lived in the New York suburbs, had put at least $1.4 billion of his and his clients’ money with Mr. Madoff. He had lost his entire savings. He was overwhelmed and depressed, according to people who had spoken to him.

Worse, he felt personally responsible for the money his investors had lost, his brother Bertrand said in a phone interview in Paris this week...





Ruth Madoff Reportedly Blames Bernie For Son's Suicide
PerezHilton.com
Dec. 14, 2010

...Ruth Madoff is reportedly blaming her husband, Bernie, for their son Mark's suicide.

Here's what Madoff biographer Jerry Oppenheimer had to say about it on The Today Show:

"She claims that Bernie Madoff has blood on his hands. She calls him an SOB … that he's totally ruined his family, and the death of their son was the final straw."

Oppenheimer has also said that Ruth feels that Mark "would not have died if it weren't for what [Bernie] had done."

And more from Oppenheimer:

"Her wrath is aimed at her husband." ...

Madoff victims sue SEC for 'negligence'

See all Bernie Madoff posts.

Madoff victims sue SEC for 'negligence'
By Aaron Smith
CNNMoney.com staff writer
October 14, 2009

Two victims of the convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff filed suit Wednesday against the Securities and Exchange Commission, accusing the government regulator of negligence in failing to protect investors.

Molchatsky and Schneider accuse the SEC of failing to detect Madoff's long-running scam, which stole billions of dollars from thousands of investors.

"Through its negligent actions and inactions ... the SEC caused Madoff's scheme to continue, perpetuate and expand, eventually in billions in losses by investors...

The lawsuit said that SEC regulators had "countless opportunities" to stop Madoff's scheme "and botched all of them."

"Instead of watching the backs of Ms. Molchatsky and Dr. Schneider and the backs of all the other investors, the SEC -- through its negligence -- was effectively watching Bernie Madoff's back," said one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, former SEC attorney Howard Elisofon. "Now it is time for the SEC to be held accountable and for the federal government to do what the law says it must do: compensate the victims for its negligence."

The lawsuit noted that, between 1992 and 2008, the SEC received "at least eight complaints or submissions indicating that Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme."