A college student from New City, the son of the New City man who was the longtime accountant for Bernard Madoff, has died of an apparent suicide in Columbus, OH, according to police.
Clarkstown police said they were notified Thursday night of the death of Jeremy Friehling, 23, who was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Friehling was the son of David G. Friehling of New City, a former accountant who worked for Bernard Madoff. Friehling pleaded guilty in Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, a fraud that ran for years and had thousands of victims who lost billions of dollars — including many victims in Rockland County.
Friehling, charged in 2009, admitted in federal court that he produced the audits that allowed Madoff to hide his Ponzi scheme from the government for years.
In 2010, Mark Madoff, the son of jailed Bernard Madoff, commited suicide. He was found hanging in a Manhattan apartment.
It saddens me deeply to see the headline used by the Patch. Why does this article focus on the father and his former work when the issue here is the loss of one of our community's shining stars? Jeremy was the valedictorian of his North High School class, near the top of his class at Duke and a brillant medical school student at Ohio State. He loved his family deeply and was equally well loved by them. His loss will be felt by many but none more deeply than his parents and siblings. Please let this family rest in peace.