Bernard Madoff was arrested and sentenced to 150 years in prison, on December 11 in 2008. It came as a result of a massive Ponzi scheme, which was conducted in the business that he shared with his sons. Andrew and Mark were the marketing side of the business. In this, Madoff made billions off of investors, but didn’t promise a quick short return like most. His investors’ bank statements were showing consistent positive returns from their investments in his company. When in reality there was no money being returned to them, and Madoff was keeping all the money for himself. No one found out about this scandal until Madoff confessed it to his family on December 9, 2008.

On the second year anniversary of his father’s imprisonment, the eldest son, Mark, committed suicide. The remaining family of Bernie Madoff, his wife Ruth and his youngest son Andrew, claim they had no idea he was scamming his investors. Andrew told NBC Today that all his life he had been told of his father’s legacy; he said that people called his father a “spectacularly skillful trader.” Before the confession, Andrew believed he had no reason to think his father was doing anything wrong with the business.

The family made the appearance on NBC as a result of the newly published book Truth and Consequences by Laurie Sandell.  The book was written after extensive interviews with family members of Bernard Madoff. Andrew says the book was an opportunity to “speak to thousands of victims” he doesn’t know and tell the world what really happened in his and his mother’s own words.

After Madoff’s conviction, Ruth first tried to get her sons to co-sign bail for their father, however, that did not work. So, she chose to go and see him on a daily basis. It wasn’t until a woman named Sheryl Weinstein published a memoir saying that she was Madoff’s mistress that Ruth stopped visiting him in jail. Ruth now says that she doesn’t miss her husband.  Ruth as quoted by the Huffington Post said, “The villain behind all of this is behind bars.”