Madoff's wife turfed out of penthouse

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US authorities have seized the Manhattan penthouse of convicted Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff, evicting his wife Ruth.

[keywords] => Madoff, Bernard Madoff, Bernie Madoff, Ruth, Ruth Madoff, fraud, fraudster, swindler, money, dollars, cash, savings, penthouse, apartment, home, assets, evict, [content] =>

US authorities have seized the Manhattan penthouse of convicted Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff, evicting his wife Ruth.

Madoff was jailed for 150 years for masterminding an "extraordinarily evil" multi-billion-dollar investment scam that cheated thousands of people around the world out of their life savings.

"US marshalls went and seized the property," marshall spokeswoman Nikki Credic said on Thursday, as attempts to claw back some of the money swindled by Madoff continued.

Ruth Madoff, who has not been shown to be complicit in her husband's elaborate "Ponzi" scheme, released a statement condemning the former Nasdaq chairman's actions.

Mrs Madoff "voluntarily left" the seven-million-dollar Manhattan suite after officials arrived, Credic said.

On Monday, a New York court ordered Madoff to forfeit more than US$170 billion in illegally obtained assets.
 
In an accompanying order, a district court also stipulated that Ruth Madoff be stripped of US$85 million in assets, leaving her with US$2.5 million in cash.

 

[start_date] => 03 July 2009 | 08:08:02 AM [comments_allowed] => 1 [source] => AFP/SBS [commentCount] => 0 [video] => [image] => Array ( [caption] => Bernard Madoff was jailed for 150 years for swindling thousands of people out of their life savings [useRegularImage] => 1 [media_library_id] => 97217 [site_id] => 1 [media_library_group_id] => 0 [media_usage_id] => 0 [filename] => site_1_rand_1673080964_madoff_sentence_3006_b_ap.jpg [title] => madoff_sentence_3006_B_AP_1673080964 [description] => file:site_1_rand_1673080964_madoff_sentence_3006_b_ap.jpg [type] => [height] => 338 [width] => 450 [source] => [video_hi] => [video_lo] => [section] => [display_order] => 0 [create_date] => 2009-06-30 06:23:34 [active] => 1 [media_usage] => Article Large [usageWidth] => 300 [usageHeight] => 225 ) [imagePath] => http://media.sbs.com.au/news/upload_media/ [audio] => [reporter] => [relatedLinks] => Array ( [2] => Array ( [id] => 1042151 [label] => Ruth Madoff says she feels 'betrayed and confused' [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 1042146 [label] => Bernard Madoff jailed for 150 years [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [0] => Array ( [id] => 1041536 [label] => Profile: Bernard Lawrence Madoff [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) ) [relatedArticles] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [article_id] => 1041536 [headline] => Profile: Bernard Lawrence Madoff [abstract] => Bernard Lawrence Madoff was born on April 29 1938 and kicked off his investment career at the age of 22 when he put the $5,000 proceeds of his summer jobs into his first business. [content] =>

Bernard Lawrence Madoff was born on April 29 1938 and kicked off his investment career at the age of 22 when he put the $5,000 proceeds of his summer jobs into his first business.

By the early 1990s, the Wall Street high flyer soared up the corporate ladder and became chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The early years

He founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960 and was the company chairman until his arrest last year.

His business grew significantly with the help of his father in law, accountant Saul Alpern, who referred a circle of friends and their families.

The firm functioned as a third market provider, which bypassed exchange specialist firms by directly executing share orders over the counter from retail brokers. The firm also had an investment management and advisory sector.

Loved the high life

Madoff loved a flashy lifestyle, and had homes in Manhatten, the Hamptons, Palm Beach and Florida.

According to a filing by Madoff earlier this year, he and his wife Ruth were worth up to $US126 million plus an estimated $US700 million for the value of his business interest.

Other major assets include securities ($US45 million), cash ($US 17 million), half-interest in BLM Air Charter ($US 12 million), 2006 Leopard yacht in France ($US 7 million), jewelry ($US2.6 million), Manhattan apartment ($US 7 million), Montauk home ($US 3 million), Palm Beach home ($US 11 million), Cap d' Antibe, France property ($US 1 million), and furniture, household goods, and art ($US 9.9 million).

Generous giver

Despite the fraud allegations against him, Madoff was a well known philanthropist and served on boards of nonprofit institutions, many of which entrusted his firm with their endowments.

Madoff donated approximately $US6 million of his own wealth to lymphoma research after his son, Andrew, was diagnosed with the disease.

He and wife Ruth also donated almost $US250,000 to political causes since the early 90s. Reportedly almost 90 per cent went to the Democratic Party and 12 per cent to the Republican Party.

Scandal hits Madoff family

On December 10 2008, Madoff informed his sons Mark and Andrew that he'd be paying several million dollars of bonuses two months earlier than scheduled. According to investigators, the sons demanded to know why their father could pay the bonuses ahead of time but not afford to foot the cash for investors.

Madoff admitted the asset management arm of his firm was an elaborate Ponzi scheme.

He was arrested a day later and charged with securities fraud.

The 70-year-old pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes, including securities fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and making false filings with the SEC.

The Ponzi scheme explained

According to Madoff, the Ponzi scheme began in 1991 and said he never made any legitimate investments with his clients' money.

Instead, he deposited the money into his business bank account with the Chase Manhatten Bank.

He then went onto use the account for client withdrawals, claiming the "profits" were the result of a uniqie "split strike conversion strategy".

Madoff told the Court his intention was to always resume legitimate trading activity when the economy picked up, but it proved "difficult and ultimately impossible" to break even for his clients.

It's believed his actions have short changed investors to the sum of $US65 billion.
 

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She's been hounded by news photographers, vilified by former clients of her husband and ostracised in high society. She's also kept quiet for months - until today.

Ruth Madoff - memorably christened "The Loneliest Woman in New York" in a recent New York Times headline - finally spoke out after her notorious husband got a 150-year sentence that probably makes certain she'll never see him again outside of prison.

Watch doco: The Madoff Affair

"I am breaking my silence now, because my reluctance to speak has been interpreted as indifference or lack of sympathy for the victims of my husband Bernie's crime, which is exactly the opposite of the truth," Madoff said in a statement issued through her lawyer.

Prosecutors say her husband's multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme wiped out clients of his investment advisory firm while bankrolling an extravagant lifestyle for his family, including country estates, a yacht and international travel.

Mrs Madoff, 68, hasn't been charged with a crime. But a judge's forfeiture order has stripped her of $US80 million ($A99.07 million) in assets including a penthouse apartment where she still lives.

That's left her with $US2.5 million ($A3.1 million) that couldn't be linked to the fraud.

Since her husband's arrest late last year, negative publicity casting the Madoffs as soulless symbols of greed and excess has made her persona non grata at her regular hair salon, florist and favorite high-end eateries on the Upper East Side, the Times reported.

Her husband of nearly 50 years came to her defence while addressing the court, saying she "cries herself to sleep every night knowing of all the pain and suffering I have caused, and I am tormented by that as well" Ruth Madoff, though not at the courthouse, later expressed her own sympathy for the victims.

"Many of my husband's investors were my close friends and family," she said.

"And in the days since December, I have read, with immense pain, the wrenching stories of people whose life savings have evaporated because of his crime."

The statement didn't overtly condemn her husband, nor address the couple's future.

But she suggested she identified with his victims who were blind-sided by his dark side.

"I am embarrassed and ashamed," she said. "Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused.

The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years."

 

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