Bernie Madoff Will Not Attend Son's Funeral, Says Lawyer

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) The lawyer for Bernard Madoff, who swindled clients out of billions of dollars, says the jailed financier will not attend the funeral of his eldest son, Mark, who hanged himself with a dog leash Saturday, two years after his father's arrest.

Attorney Ira Sorkin says Madoff, 72, has declined to attend the funeral for Mark Madoff out of consideration for his daughter-in-law's and grandchildren's privacy. Instead the disgraced financier will conduct a private ceremony at the North Carolina prison where he is serving a 150-year sentence.

The New York Post reported earlier that prison rules may have barred Madoff from attending his son's funeral in any case. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said Saturday that in general the bureau does allow furloughs for prisoners to attend memorial services.

Mark Madoff, 46, was found hanging from a ceiling pipe in the living room of his SoHo loft apartment as his 2-year-old son slept in a nearby bedroom, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

"This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy," Madoff's lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum said in a written statement. "Mark was an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo."

Madoff, who reported his father to authorities, has never been criminally charged in the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history and has said he and his brother Andrew never knew of their father's crimes. A law enforcement official told the AP that Mark was not facing imminent arrest and hadn't spoken in over a year to investigators pursuing possible charges.

But he and other Madoff relatives have remained under investigation and been named in multiple investor lawsuits accusing them of profiting from the scheme.

Bernard Madoff admitted to a two-decade-long scheme in which he cheated thousands of individuals, charities, celebrities and institutional investors out of an estimated $20 billion.

He was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008, after confessing his crimes to his sons.

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