Mark Madoff Suicide Leaves Unanswered Questions

Mark Madoff was found dangling from a black dog leash in his Manhattan apartment living room, while his 2-year-old son was found asleep in an adjoining bedroom. The 46 year old son of a thief, in his final act of cowardice. emailed his wife, in Florida with their older child.

What a delightful family this is.

Two Years Ago, when the Madoff arrest first exploded, the story smelled funny. How could a 70 year old run a $50 billion Ponzi scheme by his lonesome?

According to the trustee recovering assets for Madoff’s “investors,” Mark Madoff, director of listed trading for his fathers brokerage firm (technically separate from the Ponzi investors) was paid $29.3 million from 2001 to 2008. Not only that, the trustee claims he improperly grabbed another $66.8 million for himself, his family and entities on his behalf. And in case that wasn’t enough, Mark Madoff was also accused of falsifying transactions to withdraw $18.1 million from his account by the trustee.

If those numbers are accurate, it raises a question: What was Mark Madoff doing that was worth $16,314,286 dollars per year over that seven year period? It is hard for me to fathom that anything associated with that firm could have led to that sort of annual compensation — at least, in a traditional compensation structure.

Was this merely deserved compensation for a job done well? An example of the family;s generosity to its own? Hush money?

I have no idea.

If the trusteee’s allegations of compensation are true, it sure seems like an awfully big comp package. The specifics of his compensation structure as an employee of his father’s firm strongly imply that the apple does not fall far from the tree — i.e., that even if he wasn’t a thief, like his old man, the deceased certainly was not ashamed to grab a huge pile of cash, deserved or not.

I have not delved to deeply into this sordid mess for some time, as everything associated with this clan is nauseating. Today’s announcement simply was the last straw.

One would imagine that any innocent person, with 2 children in this marriage (more from a previous one), would want to clear their name, if only for the sake of their innocent kids. Apparently not . . .

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