By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The son of convicted ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff set off a police search Wednesday when he went missing from his SoHo home following an argument with his wife.
The wife of Mark Madoff, 45, called police around 1:30 am, hours after the couple fought in their Mercer Street home and Madoff sped off on his Vespa, reports the New York Post.
Madoff reappeared Thursday morning saying he was under severe stress and had spent the night at the Soho Grand Hotel.
Madoff worked at his father's firm and was recently sued, along with younger brother Andrew, uncle Peter Madoff and cousin Shana Madoff, for $200 million by Irving Picard, the federal trustee overseeing the breakup of Bernard Madoff's company.
In the lawsuit filed two weeks ago, Picard said the family should have been aware of Bernard Madoff's $65 billion fraud and were negligent in not reporting the scheme.
Picard also said Mark Madoff and the rest of the family used the firm as a "personal piggy bank", Madoff made as much as $5 million a year, according to the Post.
Madoff and his wife Stephanie have been married since 2003, it is his second marriage.
