Andrew Madoff, the last surviving child of Ponzi scheme kingpin Bernie Madoff, died Wednesday of lymphoma at age 48. Madoff had been battling lymphoma since 2013, and even served as the chairman of the Lymphoma Research Foundation in 2008, though he resigned from the position later that year when truth of his father’s malfeasance came to light.

Andrew Madoff Dead of Cancer

"One way to think of this is the scandal and everything that happened killed my brother very quickly," Andrew Madoff told People magazine last year. "And it's killing me slowly."

Andrew was the last of the Madoff sons; his younger brother Peter hanging himself on December 11, 2010, two years to the day of his father’s arrest. At the time, Peter’s two-year-old son napped in the next room.

Bernie Madoff himself is still alive, serving out a 150 year sentence. The scope of Bernie Madoff’s crimes were, as federal guidelines only account for sentencing for up to $400 million in fraud; Madoff made approximately $65 billion of the course of several decades.

Andrew Madoff and Family Controversy

Andrew and Peter were the ones who turned their father in for his Ponzi scheme and multiple frauds and maintained their innocence over the years. Many have suspected that the sons knew well in advance of their father’s illegal activities, and had even profited off of them. Though they remained targets by the IRS and several other federal agencies, no evidence supporting that theory was ever found.

Madoff Ponzi Schemes

A Ponzi scheme is a type of investment fraud that the operator (in this case Bernie Madoff) pays investors with money given by new investors. The operator will entice new investors with his high returns, leading to new investors with even larger investment capital. The scheme itself then grows. Bernie Madoff ran the longest running and most successful Ponzi scheme in human history.