(Photo: AP file photo)
Andrew Madoff, the last surviving offspring of convicted Ponzi scheme architect Bernard Madoff, died Wednesday after a long struggle with cancer.
“Andrew Madoff has lost his courageous battle against mantle cell lymphoma,” his attorney, Martin Flumenbaum, said in a statement.
Madoff, 48, died at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, surrounded by relatives, Flumenbaum said.
Funeral arrangements will be private, the attorney said.
According to the Lymphoma Research Foundation, mantle cell lymphoma is a relatively rare blood cancer that got its name because the tumor cells originate from the “mantle zone” of the body’s lymph nodes.
Andrew Madoff’s death came after his older brother, Mark Madoff, committed suicideby hanging himself at his New York City home on Dec. 11, 2010. That date marked the second anniversary of the collapse of the decades-long scam Bernard Madoff used to steal an estimated $20 billion from thousands of average investors, charities, celebrities and others worldwide.
Bernard Madoff, now 76, pleaded guilty without standing trial after he disclosed the scam’s impending implosion to his sons, and they in turn contacted authorities. The disgraced financier is serving a 150-year prison sentence at the medium-security federal correctional institution in Butner, N.C.
Source: USA Today | Kevin McCoy
BCNN1 WP 