Ruth Madoff and Andrew Madoff, the wife and son of the infamous swindler Bernie Madoff, appeared on 60 Minutes last night to explain their side of the story. According to their interviews, the family had no idea that Bernie was embezzling billions of dollars and running a Ponzi scheme.
“I trusted him,” said Ruth in the interview. “Why would it ever occur to me that it wasn’t legal? The business was, his reputation was almost legendary. Why would I ever think that there was something sinister going on?”
The interview comes as two new books have emerged about the Madoffs. Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family by Laurie Sandell includes interviews with the family members. It came out today from the Hachette Book Group.
Stephanie Madoff Mack, the widow of Bernie‘s son Mark Madoff, also has a new book out called The End of Normal: A Wife’s Anguish, A Widow’s New Life. In the book from Blue Rider Press, Mack claims that despite working for his father, her husband Mark had no knowledge of his father’s infamous Ponzi scheme, and his suicide was driven by the embarrassment and shame of finding out about it.