Bernie Madoff family: who are Ruth, Mark, Andrew and Peter, deaths explained, what happened after Ponzi scheme

The latest true crime docuseries from Netflix tracks the rise and fall of notorious fraudster Bernie Madoff in Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street. It was through his Ponzi scheme that Bernie Madoff was able to defraud investors out of billions before it all came crashing down in 2008.

This is everything you need to know about the Madoff family - and what happened after Bernie’s crimes were uncovered.

Bernie Madoff

Bernie Madoff is a name that most people will be familiar with, given his role as the person behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history, which US prosecutors estimated was worth $64.8 billion.

He was born on 29 April 1938 in Queens, New York City, to parents Sylvia Munter and Ralph Madoff, who was a stockbroker. He briefly attended the University of Alabama before transferring to Hofstra University from which he graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

Bernie went on to attend the Brooklyn Law School before dropping out after one year to found Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the company behind his eventual Ponzi scheme.

After being turned over to the authorities, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison on 29 June 2009. He passed away at the age of 82 on 14 April 2021 at the Federal Medical Center in North Carolina as a result of chronic kidney disease.

Ruth Madoff

Ruth Madoff is the widow of Bernie. The two married in 1959, when Ruth was just 18, with Bernie three years her senior. The two had met whilst they were both at Far Rockaway High School.

She was also born in Queens, New York City, in 1941, and in 1961 she graduated from Queens College with a degree in Psychology. She later graduated from New York University with a Master of Science degree in nutrition in 1992.

Ruth worked as Bernie’s bookkeeper and was a director of Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities. Following her husband’s arrest, Ruth said in an interview that she and Bernie had attempted to take their own lives on Christmas Eve in 2008, however they were unsuccessful.

She had approximately $70 million in assets in her name, but after Bernie was sent to prison, she was stripped of all her money apart from between $1 - $2 million.

Since September 2020, Ruth has lived with her former daughter in law Susan Elkin in a $4.4 million property in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

Mark Madoff

Mark Madoff was Bernie and Ruth’s eldest son. Born in Long Island on 11 March 1964, Mark himself was also a financier. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan in 1986 and in 1987 he joined his father’s company, Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

It was Mark and his brother, Andrew, who turned their father over to the authorities in December 2008 after Bernie confessed that the business was actually a long-running Ponzi scheme which was, at that time, in the process of crumbling under the global financial crisis.

Mark was married twice - first to his college girlfriend, Susan Elkin, with whom he had two children, son David and daughter Kate. After he and Elkin divorced, Mark later married Stephanie Mack and welcomed two more children into the world, Audrey and Nicholas.

On 11 December 2010, Mark took his own life in his Manhattan apartment on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest. He was 46.

Andrew Madoff

Andrew Madoff was the youngest son of Ruth and Bernie, who also worked for his father’s business with his older brother, Mark. He was born in Long Island as well on 8 April 1966. In 1988, Andrew graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

In 2003, Andrew was diagnosed with cancer. While it went into remission, it returned in 2011 - an event which he blamed on the stress of his father’s crimes and Marks suicide. Whilst undergoing treatment, Andrew passed away on 3 September 2014, at the age of 48.

Andrew married Deborah Anne West in 1992, however the two reportedly separated in 2007. While he later became engaged to Catherine Hooper, his divorce to West was not completed before he died.

Andrew was father to two daughters, Anne and Emily, whom he had during his relationship with West.

Peter Madoff

Peter Madoff is Bernie’s brother, who worked as his chief compliance officer. For his role in the Ponzi scheme, Peter was sentenced to 10 years in prison. On 29 June 2012, he pleaded guilty in Federal court to a variety of charges, including one count of falsifying records and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and on 20 December 2012 he was sentenced.

He ended up serving nine of his 10 years and was released from prison on 13 August 2020. According to the New York Post, Peter now lives in Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife.

Peter’s daughter, Shana Madoff Swanson, also worked for him at Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC as a rules and compliance officer and attorney, however no criminal charges were ever brought against her as it is believed she had no knowledge of her father or her uncle’s crimes.

Sondra Weiner

Sondra Weiner was Bernie’s sister, who was married to husband Marvin Weiner. The two had lived together in BallenIsles, a private country club community, before moving to Valencia Lakes. They reportedly had to sell their Palm Beach Gardens mansion, worth around $850,000, after they allegedly lost millions as a result of Bernie’s fraud.

On 17 February 2022, Sondra, 87, and Marvin, 90, were both found dead with gunshot wounds in their home in Florida.

At the time, the authorities said that the couple had died in what “appears to be a murder/suicide”.