Basic Information
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name (publicly used) | Shana Diane Madoff |
| Birth date | December 8, 1967 (reported) |
| Education | University of Michigan (undergraduate); Fordham Law School, J.D., 1995 |
| Primary employer (1990s–2008) | Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities — in-house counsel / compliance roles |
| Known for | In-house lawyer at BLMIS; family ties to Bernard L. Madoff; later low-profile public life |
| Family (closest reported) | Father: Peter Madoff; Mother: Marion Madoff; Uncle: Bernard (“Bernie”) Madoff; Cousins: Mark & Andrew Madoff; Brother: Roger (deceased) |
| Marital / relationship notes | Married to Scott Skoller (1997; later divorced); later partnered / married to Eric Swanson (former SEC official) |
| Children | One daughter (reported) |
| Legal outcomes | No criminal charges against Shana reported; family members convicted or subject to forfeiture actions |
| Public profile since 2009 | Minimal — occasional local listings and public filings; some mentions of yoga instruction and low-key professional activity |
A tight shot: early life, law school, and joining the firm
I like to think of biographies as a long tracking shot — you start far away and the camera slowly glides in. For Shana Madoff the glide begins with law school and a neat transition into her family’s business world: after finishing her J.D. in 1995, she joined Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in the mid-1990s and worked there in legal and compliance capacities for more than a decade. That timing — 1995 to 2008 — places her at the firm during years when the business was publicly thriving and then suddenly collapsing in December 2008.
Numbers compress drama: 13 years at a single firm, one spectacular firm collapse on a single winter day in 2008, and a chain of criminal prosecutions and civil actions that followed for a dozen more people around the Madoff network.
The family table: faces that anchor the story
Below is a compact table that introduces the family members who frequently appear in the public record about Shana — each a character with their own arc in the larger drama.
| Name | Relationship | Short intro |
|---|---|---|
| Peter Madoff | Father | Longtime executive and compliance officer at BLMIS; later pleaded guilty to offenses connected to the firm and was sentenced in 2012. |
| Marion Madoff | Mother | Part of the immediate family circle; appears in family references and public profiles. |
| Bernard (“Bernie”) Madoff | Uncle | Founder of BLMIS; the central figure in the Ponzi scheme that defined the public aftermath. |
| Mark & Andrew Madoff | Cousins | Bernie’s sons and Shana’s first cousins; both worked at the firm as traders and were central figures in media and legal scrutiny (Mark died in 2010). |
| Roger Madoff | Brother | Reported as deceased in 2006; less prominent in public accounts but part of the family chronology. |
| Scott Skoller | Ex-husband | Married to Shana in 1997 and later divorced; they share a daughter. |
| Rebecca (daughter) | Child | Shana’s daughter, mentioned in press pieces and public records. |
| Eric Swanson | Spouse / partner | A former SEC official whose relationship with Shana drew public attention because of the overlapping timing with SEC contacts and examinations of the firm. |
Think of the family like a tightly framed ensemble cast in a prestige-TV drama — each person with their own backstory, each move rippling through the rest.
Career and the compliance desk — what the job looked like
Working as in-house counsel and compliance officer at a broker-dealer is, in plain terms, a job of paperwork, filings, certifications, and a lot of talking to regulators — the kind of backstage labor that keeps front-stage traders and clients operating. From the mid-1990s through 2008, Shana’s role was reported to include those compliance functions at BLMIS and affiliated entities, and she appeared on industry compliance committees.
But the camera on compliance can cut both ways: when a firm implodes, the people who filed the forms and signed the letters find themselves in the frame. For Shana, that frame became public scrutiny — not in the form of criminal charges against her, but in the form of media attention, regulatory review of contacts, and the legal unspooling of the firm’s financial wreckage.
Legal and financial aftermath — numbers and actions
- The industry collapse unfolded on a single, seismic date: December 2008.
- In the years after, multiple family members and associates faced civil suits, criminal charges, convictions, plea deals, and asset forfeiture actions.
- Peter Madoff pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2012; parts of family assets were subject to forfeiture and trustee recovery actions, and some items tied to family members were sold or auctioned in the 2010s.
- Shana herself was not criminally charged in the government prosecutions of the scheme; public reporting instead documented investigations, civil suits, and asset recovery steps that touched the family.
Those are the ledger lines — arrests, pleas, forfeitures, auctions — and they rewrite private ledgers into public records: dollars moved, properties sold, and legal pages filed.
Public life since the storm — low key, local, and practical
After the headlines cooled, Shana’s public footprint narrowed dramatically. Profiles and local listings over the past decade present an image of someone who stepped out of the front-page glare and into quieter roles: low-profile business activity, occasional local teaching (reported yoga instruction appears in some public listings), and general absence from national media cycles. In pop culture terms, if the Madoff scandal was a supernova, Shana’s life since has been more like a dimmer filament — still on, but not broadcasting.
Voice and image: the curious intersection of law, family, and optics
I keep coming back to one idea: this story is as much about optics as it is about law. The phrase often used in public review — that certain relationships or contacts created an “appearance of conflict” — is a blunt way to say reputation matters as much as statutes sometimes do. In the court of public perception, a name, a date, an email thread, and a photograph can carry as much weight as an indictment.
Listen to that hum: an in-house lawyer whose family built a vast financial machine; an uncle at the center of a fraud that rewrote trust; a partner in regulatory circles who later became a public focal point; a daughter, a sibling, a father who later pleaded guilty. It’s an ensemble that reads like a script — and I’m telling it here in the conversational voice of someone who’s followed the scenes, paused on the key shots, and tried to translate them into clear, human terms.
FAQ
Who is Shana Madoff?
Shana Madoff is a lawyer who worked as in-house counsel and compliance officer at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities from the mid-1990s until the firm’s collapse in December 2008.
What was her role at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities?
Her reported duties centered on legal and compliance responsibilities — filings, certifications, and internal rules work — for the firm and affiliated entities.
Was she criminally charged in connection with the Madoff scheme?
No criminal charges against Shana have been reported in the public prosecutions related to the fraud.
Who are the closest family members mentioned in public records?
Closest publicly referenced family include her father Peter Madoff (who pleaded guilty), her mother Marion, uncle Bernard Madoff, cousins Mark and Andrew, and a daughter from a prior marriage.
Is she married to Eric Swanson?
Public reporting indicates Shana had a relationship and later marriage/partnership with Eric Swanson, a former SEC official, which drew scrutiny because of timing and contacts with the agency.
What is her current public profile or occupation?
Since the firm’s collapse, Shana’s public profile has been low-key, with occasional local listings and mentions of teaching or community activity rather than national business prominence.
