Lawyer: 'Lies Drove Madoff Son To Suicide'

ies and innuendo suggesting he was somehow complicit in his father Bernard's multi-billion-dollar swindle drove Mark Madoff to commit suicide, his lawyer has said.

Mark Madoff had reportedly become increasingly despondent

The 46-year-old was found hanged in his Manhattan apartment on Saturday, exactly two years to the day since his father was arrested.
The body was reportedly discovered by his wife's stepfather in the living room, but had not left a suicide note.
He had "succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo", his lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum, said in a statement.
"This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy," Mr Flumenbaum added.
"Mark was an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime."
Bernard Madoff, 72, is serving a 150-year term in prison in North Carolina after swindling a long list of investors out of billions of dollars.
He admitted he ran his Ponzi scheme for at least two decades, cheating thousands of individuals, charities, celebrities and institutional investors.
Along with his younger brother Andrew, Mark Madoff was under investigation but had not faced any criminal charges arising from the scam that led to their father's jailing.
They said they were unaware of his crimes.
But they have remained under investigation and been named in several civil lawsuits accusing them of profiting from the scheme.
And reports said Mark had become increasingly despondent in the months before his death.

Madoff's body is taken out of a New York apartment building

It is thought his family's blackened name had made it impossible for him to find a job.
"He'd been trying to move on with his life but he wasn't successful," the New York Daily News quoted a source as saying.
"The pressure was mounting," the person added. "He's been upset for two years."
One employee, who had seen him recently, reportedly said: "He was stressed out. You could see it in his face.
"It was devastating for him. Ever since it started, it turned his world upside down."
Another person apparently said the intense scrutiny approaching the second anniversary of the case "became too much for him".
Reports also said a lawsuit that threatened to leave him bankrupt and the possibility of criminal charges stemming from his father's scam meant he was struggling to rebuild his life.
His two young children were also named in a lawsuit which was attempting to recover funds lost to his father's Ponzi scheme.

Bernard Madoff is serving 150 years in jail

The black cloud over the Madoff name had also led Mark's wife, Stephanie, to change her surname, as well as that of their children, to Morgan this year.
His wife had been on holiday in Florida with their daughter, four, when Mark killed himself.
Their two-year-old son Nicholas was asleep in a separate bedroom in the couple's New York apartment. He was unharmed.
Hours before his death, Mark had sent emails to his lawyer, one which said: "No one wants to hear the truth".
Another one asked the lawyer to "take care of my family".
He also emailed his wife, saying he loved her and that someone should check on Nicholas.
Stephanie, who was concerned for her husband, then sent her stepfather to the couple's apartment, where he discovered the body.
Meanwhile, Bernard Madoff may be barred from attending the funeral, as inmates are normally only allowed to go when they have two years or less left on their sentences.