Bernard Madoff’s wife says couple attempted suicide -CBS

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The wife of financial swindler  Bernard Madoff said in an interview to be aired Sunday that  the couple attempted suicide by taking pills on Christmas Eve  2008 after his estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme was exposed.
Madoff, 73, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after  confessing to running a decades-long Ponzi scheme that bilked  investors out of billions of dollars, considered the biggest  financial fraud in history. He was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008.
“I don’t know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill  ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening,”  Ruth Madoff told the CBS program “60 Minutes” in her first  interview.
The couple’s elder son Mark, 46, hanged himself in his New  York apartment last Dec. 11, the second anniversary of his  father’s arrest. Mark and Andrew Madoff turned in their father  to authorities a day after he confessed to them.
Ruth Madoff said she and her husband took Ambien sleeping  pills and possibly some Klonopin anti-anxiety pills in their  suicide attempt.
“We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond  anything and I said … ‘I just can’t go on anymore,'” she  said. “(Christmas) added to the whole depression.”
“We took pills and woke up the next day. … It was very  impulsive and I am glad we woke up,” Ruth Madoff said.
Excerpts of the interview were released today.
Before the suicide attempt the couple sent a package of  sentimental items, including jewelry, to their younger son  Andrew, breaching a court order. Three years later Andrew asked  his mother why she had sent the package.
“And she told me that she and my father had planned to kill  themselves. … They put that package together beforehand and  sent it out,” Andrew Madoff told “60 Minutes”.
Defrauded Madoff investors have viewed his sons, wife and  other family members suspiciously, arguing it is impossible  that they did not know about his lies. No family members have  been criminally charged and they reject accusations that they  were aware of the fraud. Madoff has said he acted alone.
Since he pleaded guilty in March 2009, seven other people  have been arrested in the case, including several of his  long-time employees and an outside accountant.
For decades, investors big and small flocked to the New  York-based money manager, hoping to gain entree onto his  seemingly exclusive client list as he promised steady returns  that defied the broader markets. In reality, Madoff always was  seeking new investors to keep his scheme running.
A court-appointed trustee is trying to recover money for  investors defrauded in the Ponzi scheme, a fraud in which early  investors are paid with money from new ones. The schemes often  collapse when sufficient investors can’t be lined up or when a  number of investors want to cash out.