Bernie Madoff's Sister and her Husband Found Dead in Apparent Murder Suicide

2/20/22 Bernie Madoff's sister and her husband died from gunshot wounds at their home, authorities said today. They added that the case was being investigated as a murder-suicide.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office announced that they would inquire into the deaths of Sondra Wiener, 87, and Marvin Wiener, 90, after their deaths at their home in Boynton Beach, Fla., "Deputies responded to a 911 call advising a male and female were unresponsive inside their residence," the sheriff's office said in a Twitter statement Sunday. "Upon arrival deputies located an elderly female and male deceased from a gunshot wound."

Police identified the man and woman as Sondra and Marvin Wiener. They added that officers from the local medical examiner's office had taken the bodies from the scene.

On December 10, 2008, Madoff's sons Mark and Andrew told authorities that their father had confessed to them that the asset management unit of his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme, and quoted him as saying that it was "one big lie". The following day, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had previously conducted multiple investigations into his business practices but had not uncovered the massive fraud. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. The Madoff investment scandal defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said that he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s, but an ex-trader admitted in court to faking records for Madoff since the early 1970s.

Those charged with recovering the missing money believe that the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts was almost $65 billion, including fabricated gains. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion, of which $14.418 billion has been recovered and returned, while the search for additional funds continues.

On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed.On April 14, 2021, he died at the Federal Medical Center, Butner, in North Carolina, after suffering from chronic kidney disease.