Bernie Madoff's $20 billion dollar Ponzi scheme was such a destructive crime, investors lost
their life savings, their homes, and in some cases their lives.
Even Madoff's own family was also instantly torn apart from the moment he revealed his
crime.
His sons, who turned him into the FBI the same day he confessed, both didn't live past
their 40s: Mark took his own life and Andrew passed away from a rare form of blood cancer.
Each son also left behind both an ex-wife and partners.
A few of them have spoken out since the revelation of Bernie's crimes, but they're all living
a life of relative seclusion.
Lawsuits and settlements
In 2012, the trustee tasked with recouping money for Madoff's victims, Irving H. Picard,
named all three of Madoff's sons' former wives, among others, in a $255.3 million dollar lawsuit
that claimed "The women should have been aware of and reported
Madoff's fraud."
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, all three women were dropped from the suit eventually,
but a later settlement stripped Mark and Andrew's estates of a combined $23 million dollars.
Picard later said of being able to pay back Madoff's victims:
"There's a great satisfaction in having the opportunity to do what we're doing"
Not living the high life
Catherine Hooper met Andrew Madoff while he was still technically married to his estranged
wife, Deborah and, in fact, Andrew was still technically married to Deborah when he died.
The news of Andrew's death made headlines, not only because he died tragically young,
but also because he was apparently still wealthy.
The New York Daily News got their hands on Andrew's will and reported that he left a
$16 million dollar estate to be divided between his children, Hooper, and his ex-wife.
Hooper was also set to receive $50,000 per month from a trust set up by the former financier.
In a 2017 interview with People, Hooper revealed she hasn't received a penny due to Andrew's
money being tied up in lawsuits connected to his father's crimes.
Hooper also struggled to find work in the aftermath of the scandal and Andrew's death,
saying, "Honestly, despite my qualifications, every
company that interviewed me politely told me that they could never put me in front of
clients with a background connected to him."
She now lives off of the 20 percent stake she kept after selling Black Umbrella, the
disaster preparedness business that she and Andrew once operated, and also writes books
under the pen name Carolina Carter.
Hooper told People that she and her daughter live in a 500 sq. ft. studio apartment in
Manhattan — a significant downgrade from the luxury Upper East Side apartment she and
Andrew previously shared, and which sold for $5.4 million dollars in October of 2016.
Avoiding the spotlight
Deborah Madoff filed for divorce from Andrew the same day his father was arrested and taken
into FBI custody in 2008, according to The New York Post.
Ouch.
Four years later, Deborah sought to change her name back to her maiden name, Deborah
West, in an apparent attempt to distance herself from a family name that would forever be followed
by a black cloud.
Aside from those two public records, Deborah has not given interviews, she has not written
any books, and appears to want nothing to do with the infamy of the Madoff family.
Unlike Deborah West's marriage to Andrew, Susan Elkin's marriage to Mark Madoff was
over long before the scandal.
According to People, Mark and Susan divorced in 2000, but The Daily Mail reported that
Susan remained close with Mark's mother, Ruth.
Elkin has otherwise been able to stay squarely outside of the public eye.
A name change and a book
According to a 2012 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Mark and his second wife Stephanie
decided together that she would change her last name in order to escape the scrutiny
that the Madoff moniker would forever carry.
They chose Mack by combining M from Madoff with the airport code for Nantucket: ACK.
Like Hooper, Mack also put pen to paper.
In 2011 she released her memoir, The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, A Widow's New Life.
Mack's book reveals the painful details of the fallout that the family experienced as
a result of Bernie's crimes, including Mark's first attempt at taking his life, which happened
approximately one year before he tragically succeeded.
"I will never forgive him for what he did to our lives, our family, and to my husband"
Maintaining their partners' innocence
In her book, Mack defends Mark's innocence, even calling him a "hero" for intervening
in time to stop the alleged $140 million dollars in bonus checks Bernie intended to distribute
to employees just before his arrest.
Hooper echoes this sentiment.
Speaking to People, she said, "I would love it if he had been recognized
in his lifetime for the whistleblower he was and the enormous amount of personal strength
it took him to turn in his father to the FBI, and at the most emotional moment of this life
[…] but he wasn't and you just can't dwell on that."
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