The wife of accused swindler Bernard Madoff is arguing that their $7 million Manhattan penthouse and an additional $62 million in assets belong to her.
In court papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Ruth Madoff and her lawyer claim that the Upper East Side apartment, $45 million in municipal bonds and $17 million more in a separate account, all belong to her, rather than to her husband, who was charged with a $50 billion scheme to defraud investors.
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The bonds, in a Cohmad Securities account held by Ruth Madoff, and about $17 million held by her in a Wachovia Bank account, “are unrelated to the fraud, according to the papers.
The papers were filed in connection with a U.S. District Court judge’s order Monday to partially lift a freeze on Madoff’s assets so that he could cooperate with a court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of his firm to recover money for bilked investors.
To date, the trustee has said the Manhattan penthouse apartment and other properties in Montauk, N.Y. and Palm Beach, FL, which were used to secure Bernard Madoff’s bail, were off limits. But if there’s a conviction, those assets might be seized to help pay victims’ claims.
“We are looking at every member of the Madoff family,” David Sheen, an attorney representing the trustee said regarding the personal property.
Cohmad Securities, where Ruth Madoff says her account holds municipal bonds, had an office in Madoff’s headquarters in midtown Manhattan. The firm was part-owned by Bernard Madoff and has been alleged by the Massachusetts Securities Division to be a “feeder fund” to his investment firm.
Last month, Massachusetts regulators said Ruth Madoff withdrew $15.5 million from Cohmad Securities in November and December, including $10 million on the eve of her husband’s arrest for securities fraud.
She has not been charged with any wrongdoing, however, and is represented by the same attorney as her husband.
Bernard Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 and charged with securities fraud after authorities said that he confessed to his sons that he had carried out a Ponzi scheme for years, using new money from investors to pay off early investors, while issuing bogus statements claiming investment gains. He has been under house arrest in their Manhattan apartment.
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1 Comments
#1. Alison 03.03.2009
She does not deserve ANY of the money or properties unless she can prove beyond a shadow of doubt that it belongs to her and did not come from her husband or one of his numerous companies, which she probably can’t. of course she is one of the rich so normal rules do not apply.
If I had stolen lets say about $100,000.00 from my bosses and clients, would I be allowed to stay home? no my butt would be in jail so fast..
on the TV today, it was mentioned that Barack Obama is trying to get rid of prosperity… let me tell you prosperity is not 2% of the population making more money than they can EVER spend and the rest of us watching them complain about their lot in life. I am hopeful that his efforts will be successful but even if he fails, at least he tried to do something!! remember the last guy?!? seemed to spend most of his time with his head up his butt, telling everyone that thing were going well….
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