4th Person Connected to Madoff Commits Suicide

A hedge fund manager who was duped in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme jumped from the 24th floor of a New York hotel on Monday, becoming the fourth person linked to Madoff to commit suicide, reports the New York Daily News. Police and witnesses say Charles Murphy, 56, jumped from a balcony at Sofitel New York Hotel in his business suit shortly before 5pm and died at the scene. Murphy's hedge fund at Fairfield Greenwich lost $50 million of the $7.5 billion it invested with Madoff, per DNA Info, and was subsequently sued by investors. Murphy had since been working at investment management firm Paulson & Co. It's unclear whether he personally lost money in Madoff's scam.

Murphy, who is survived by his wife and four children, was “a brilliant man, a great partner and a true friend," said founder John Paulson in a statement. A French aristocrat who'd lost $1.5 billion in Madoff's scheme previously committed suicide in 2008. Another investor, a 65-year-old former Army major, committed suicide a year later. Madoff’s eldest son, Mark, then hanged himself on the second anniversary of his father's arrest in 2010 before Madoff's second son, Andrew, died of cancer in 2014. Madoff says neither son had knowledge of his crimes. (More Bernard Madoff stories.)