Could Bernie Madoff be Barred from Suicide Son's Funeral?

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff could be barred from attending the funeral of his eldest son, Mark, who hanged himself with a dog leash in his apartment Saturday exactly two years after his father's arrest, according to a report.

The New York Post reports that furloughs to attend the funerals of family members are only available to inmates with two years or less remaining on their sentences, according to the Inmate Handbook at Butner Federal Correctional Institution.

Madoff is currently serving his 150-year sentence at the prison in North Carolina.

Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said Saturday she didn't have specific information on whether the jailed financier would be allowed to attend the service. In general, she said, 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 to investigators pursuing possible charges in over a year.

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, 72, swindled a long list of investors out of billions of dollars. He admitted that he ran his scheme for at least two decades, cheating thousands of individuals, charities, celebrities and institutional investors. Losses are estimated at around $20 billion, making it the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history. He was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008, after confessing his crimes to his sons.