The eldest son of convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff was found hanged in his apartment in New York at the weekend.

Mark Madoff, 46, who worked for his father’s firm, sent e-mails to his wife and lawyer only a few hours before he was found dead saying: “nobody wants to hear the truth”.

In a statement, Martin Flumenbaum, lawyer for Mark Madoff and his younger brother, Andrew Madoff said: “Mark Madoff took his own life today. This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy. Mark was an innocent victim of his father’s monstrous crime.”

The body was reportedly discovered by his wife’s stepfather. The death marks exactly two years to the day since Bernard Madoff was arrested.

Mr Flumenbaum added: “He had succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo.”

His father, 72 year-old Bernard Madoff, is serving a 150-year term in prison in North Carolina, after he swindled thousands of investors out of an estimated £50 billion.

He admitted to running his Ponzi scheme for at least two decades – cheating a huge number of individuals, charities, celebrities and institutional investors.

The fraud began to fall apart when investors tried to cash in investments during the economic downturn.

Along with his younger brother Andrew, Mark Madoff, was under investigation since the crime came to light but had not faced any criminal charges. Both brothers have always claimed they were unaware of their father’s crimes.

However, they remained under investigation.

The father-of-two had been named in a $80 million lawsuit against directors of the fraudulent investment house three days before he died.

This was just one of many lawsuits in which Mark Madoff was named, filed by the cheated investors who wanted to make up for their losses by seizing the money his father handed to relatives.

Bernard Madoff may be barred from attending the funeral, as normally inmates are only allowed to attend when they have two years or less left of their sentence.

By Shelley DeBere