05 Oct Madoff’s Son Leaves $15MM Estate

Andrew Madoff (above), whose father Bernie admitted stealing billions in the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, died of cancer last month. According to NYC court documents, he has left an estate worth $15 million. He left a third to his mom and his estranged wife, a lot to his two college-age kids and the rest to his fiancee (including a $50,000 a month allowance for her while the case is pending). Nothing went to his Dad who is serving a 150 year sentence. Andrew was still fighting lawsuits from Madoff investors demanding money back from him to the tune of around $73 million, but he was never criminally charged in connection with his father’s crimes. Maybe Dad cut a deal to save his wife and sons from jail, but that has never been disclosed. The sons said over and over that they knew nothing about their father’s activities and in fact were the ones to report it to the FBI.

Andrew’s brother Mark killed himself in 2010 on the second anniversary of the day their father was arrested. Now mom Ruth faces the loss of her only other child. Ruth apparently was able to leave the scene with about $5 million. A lot to almost all of us but probably a pittance to the high-living wife of the former head of the Nasdaq. What did Ruth know? We will probably never know.

Receiver Irving Picard has recovered nearly $10 billion to cover losses from Madoff investors that most estimated at around $16 billion, but those estimates have ranged from $6 billion to $70 billion so it is not entirely clear. Some of his victims were his high school buddies from my parents’ alma mater, Far Rockaway High School in Queens, NY (my folks didn’t know him).  Advice to investors #1: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Advice #2: do not allow any one advisor to control all your assets.