Officers were called to 158 Mercer Street to respond to a report that Mark Madoff was hanging in his apartment in Manhattan's fashionable SoHo section.
He was found at 7:30 a.m. by his father-in-law, said police sources.
There was no note, the sources said.
Both Mark and his brother Andrew worked at the firm.
A law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mark Madoff was found hanged in his apartment, and his father-in-law notified police around 7:30 a.m.
Mark Madoff and his brother, Andrew, have not faced any criminal charges in the massive Ponzi scheme that led to Bernard Madoff's prison sentence, but were under investigation.
Madoff's sons, Mark, 46, and Andrew, 43, as well as his brother Peter, 60, are the target of a criminal tax-fraud investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, as well as a civil suit brought by the court-appointed trustee in charge of recovering assets for Madoff victims.
It's unclear what alleged tax fraud federal prosecutors are investigating, although such cases commonly deal with alleged failures to declare income or false deductions, such as deducting personal expenses as business costs. David Friehling, who pleaded guilty last year to preparing false tax returns for Bernie Madoff and signing off on fake audit reports for the firm, is assisting with the investigation.
All three men are former tax clients of Friehling. A separate civil suit filed in October by Irving Picard, the trustee, seeks $200 million in damages from Madoff family members who worked at the firm and alleges that Peter, Mark, and Andrew each withdrew $16 to $18 million from their firm accounts in "brazenly fabricated transactions." The civil suit also charges that the three should have recognized irregularities as evidence of Madoff's fraud.
Bernard Madoff swindled a long list of investors out of billions of dollars and is serving a 150-year prison term in North Carolina. He was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008, after confessing his crimes to his family.
Madoff's sons, according to the family's attorneys, were the ones who turned him in.
The scandal put a harsh light on members of the family. The financier's brother, Peter, played a prominent role in the family's company. Mark and Andrew Madoff both worked on a trading desk at the firm, on a side of the business that wasn't directly involved in the Ponzi scheme.
A year ago, the court-appointed trustee trying to unravel Madoff's financial affairs sued several relatives, including Peter, Mark and Andrew, accusing them of failing to detect the fraud while living lavish lifestyles financed with the family's ill-gotten fortune.
The lawsuit accused Mark Madoff of using $66 million he received improperly to buy luxury homes in New York City, Nantucket and Connecticut.
In February, Mark Madoff's wife petitioned a court to change her last name and the last names of her children, saying her family had gotten threats and was humiliated by the scandal.
Mark Madoff in 2005, at his father’s firm in New York.
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