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The wife and son of financial swindler Bernard Madoff said in their first interview to be broadcast on Sunday that they knew nothing of his estimated 65 billion dollrs Ponzi scheme, but feel shame for his ‘unforgiveable’ crime.
Madoff (73) is serving a 150-year prison sentence after confessing to running a decades-long scheme that bilked investors out of billions, considered the biggest financial fraud in history.
Defrauded Madoff investors have long viewed the convicted swindler’s sons, wife and other family member suspiciously, arguing it is impossible that they did not know about his lies. No family members have been criminally charged.
Madoff’s younger son Andrew told the CBS program ’60 Minutes’ that the family was shocked when his sobbing father confessed his crime to them in December 2008. He said his mother Ruth’s first question was ‘What’s a Ponzi scheme?’
“She didn’t even understand that. I think it was me who answered and said that “It means that it’s all fake’” – Andrew Madoff said. “(Bernard Madoff) followed that up and said ‘Yes, I’ve been lying to all of you – all of these years. I’ve been lying to everybody. I’ve been lying to myself.’”
Mark and Andrew Madoff – who worked at their father’s firm – turned him into authorities and he was arrested on December 11, 2008.
Madoff has insisted he acted alone in running the Ponzi scheme, a fraud in which early investors are paid with money from new ones. Such schemes often collapse when there are too few new investors or too many investors try to cash out at once.

Ruth Madoff.

Ruth Madoff has said that she blames herself for her son Mark’s suicide.
Mark Madoff hanged himself with a dog leash on the second anniversary of his father Bernie Madoff’s arrest for running the biggest financial fraud in history. He had wanted his mother to cut off all contact with his father.
Speaking for the first time since her disgraced financier husband’s sensational arrest three years ago, Ruth Madoff now says she wishes she had severed ties with her husband as Mark wanted.
Previously she was reported to have held Bernie, now serving a 150-year prison sentence for his record-breaking scam, responsible for her son’s death.
In an interview with CBS broadcast tonight, Ruth said – “I just wish, until my dying day, that I had done what he wanted.
“I don’t know if it would have made a difference or not, but if I could change things, at least if I had tried, I would have felt a little better. I don’t know if it would have mattered. ”
She added – “It’s the most awful thing that can happen to anybody- the suicide of a child.”
The Madoffs’ other son, Andrew, also appears in the interview with “60 Minutes”.
Ruth and her sons barely spoke in the two years after his father’s arrest because, Andrew Madoff said, he and his brother could not understand her decision to stay by their father’s side.
“I never thought of leaving” – Ruth Madoff said. “I didn’t know what else to do but stay there.”
“I think he got stuck, that’s what he said. And he didn’t have the courage to face things when they might have been able to be faced on a much smaller scale” – she said.
After Mark killed himself in his Soho loft, aged 46, Ruth Madoff cut off contact with her husband and now lives in a three-room apartment in South Florida.
That decision led to a reconciliation with her other son Andrew.
When the interviewer asked why she hadn’t filed for divorce, she said – “It doesn’t matter to me – he’s going to die in prison.”
The devastated mother claims she understood Mark’s decision, as the family fell spectacularly from grace, “going through those agonies of shame.”
In a segment of the interview revealed earlier this week Ruth claimed that she and Bernie themselves attempted suicide on Christmas Eve.

When news broke that Bernard Madoff had swindled thousands of people out of billions of dollars, many assumed that his family must have known all along. But Madoff’s wife Ruth and son Andrew tell Morley Safer they were blindsided when Madoff finally confessed that he’d been running a giant Ponzi scheme. In their first television interviews, they describe how their once-happy family was completely destroyed.
Madoff… It is a name that will live in infamy… It’s been nearly three years since Bernard Madoff confessed to running a 65 billion dollars Ponzi scheme – the largest financial fraud in history. Thousands of trusting clients who felt safe investing with a financial genius were swindled. He hadn’t invested a penny.
While Madoff is serving 150 years in prison, his family has had to deal with the consequences of his crimes. His wife Ruth, divested of most of her great wealth – and derided by a suspicious world. Their son Mark – dead. Driven to suicide by shame and accusations of guilt. Their other son Andrew isolated – trying to live with the disgrace.
Are they innocent or were they willing partners? For the first time since Bernie Madoff’s arrest, his son Andrew and wife Ruth speak out about crime, punishment and the shame of being a Madoff.
Morley Safer – It’s a tough name to live with.
Ruth Madoff – It sure is.
Ruth Madoff…
Safer – Do you feel the shame?
Ruth – Of course I feel the shame. I can barely walk down the street without worrying about people recognizing me.
And Andrew Madoff…
Andrew Madoff – From the very beginning of this whole episode – I’ve had absolutely nothing to hide. And I’ve been eager, I would say almost desperate to speak out publicly and tell people that I’m absolutely not involved.
Andrew and Ruth Madoff speak out in the book “Truth and Consequences” – a more or less tell-all arranged by Andrew’s fiancee Catherine Hooper. An attempt to separate the family from the father’s crimes.