His father became a millionaire with one of the most famous pyramid schemes in the world and ended up making the worst decision

In 1960, Bernard Madoff created his investment firm. Four decades later he was considered one of the best investors on Wall Street. But a December 11, 2008 he was arrestedaccused of being the leader of one of the biggest pyramid schemes in history.

Indeed, it was true. Madoff had raised 65 billion dollars thanks to its scheme, which worked like a Swiss watch. However, once everything came to light the story had a fatal outcome.

What was the Madoff scam?

The success behind Madoff’s signing was in his movements. The positive results that his clients saw were not thanks to operations that he carried out, but rather came from what new clients contributed.

So all I needed were two factors: they will add unlimited clientsensuring the continuity of your “bicycle”, and that Not everyone would like to withdraw their funds at the same time.. The first could be easily accomplished, since the economic outlook was prosperous and people risked their money.

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Bernie Madoff, from markets guru to one of the biggest white-collar criminals in history.

Photo: AFP

Madoff had clients all over the world. But it was with Great Recession -the worst financial crisis in the United States since Crash of 29′– that things changed. In that context, all clients wanted to recover their savingsand along the same lines, no one wanted to invest in a time of uncertainty.

This is how the system began to collapse, the whole truth came to light and Madoff had to explain it to his children.. Of course, it was curious that in the middle of one of the worst economic times in history, the father signed more than one hundred million in bonuses for employees for Christmas.

However, this was a slap in the face with the intention of being able to keep a small portion of the big cake that he had been cooking for years. The children made the decision to hand him over.

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After a trial, Madoff went to prison, where he remained until his death in April 2021.. When judging his actions, got 150 years in prisonthe maximum penalty allowed by law.

During the time he was locked up, the scammer was able to continue doing his thing: came to monopolize the chocolate market in the prison to speculate on prices. He even became something of a hero in the prison, although when his health deteriorated he had to spend a lot of time in the hospital, where he spent his last days.

What happened to Mark Madoff, his son

One of the most painful deaths within this scandalous event was Mark Madoffson of Bernard. On December 11, 2010, exactly two years after his arrest, he committed suicide. after not being able to withstand the pressure between the demands he suffered for participating in the event and his father’s secret plot.

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Bernard, his wife Ruth and their son Mark.

mark He had a wife and three children. After the incident, his circle of friends turned their backs on him, no one wanted to give him a job and he was even embarrassed when he went out on the street. At the beginning of December, He convinced his wife to take their children to Disneyso they could relax. And he stayed alone in New York, with the youngest of them and with a plan. That fateful day he sat in front of his computer and sent 2 emails. The first to his lawyer telling him that he would commit suicide, and another to Stephanie, his wife, telling her that he loved her and his children but that he could not tolerate the situation anymore. Finally, he hanged himself with a dog leash.

Other suicides after Madoff’s pyramid scheme

In addition to William, there were other victims who ended up in the same way. On December 22, Thierry de Villehuchet, 65 year old Frenchman, founder of the management company Access International (AIA), cut his wrists in his New York office, because had lost between 1,000 and 2,000 million dollars.

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William Foxton, one of the victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

Another case that was added to that of de Villehuchet was that of the war veteran William Foxton65, who after losing all his savings (an estimated $100,000) shot himself in the head in a park near his home in Southampton. After his time in the British Army, he retired in 1970 and since then had worked as a military consultant for the Sultanate of Oman and as a volunteer and spokesperson for the United Nations and various NGOs.

Years after the scam, Bernard’s wife, Ruth Apern, confessed that on Christmas 2008 they both tried to commit suicide with pills.. “I thought ‘I can’t, I can’t do this, I don’t know if I’m going to get through this and I don’t know how I’ll be able to do it, I don’t want to either,’” Apern had described. However, after the failed attempt, Madoff said that having failed, having woken up the next day, opened his eyes.