The wife of accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff pulled millions out of a brokerage account only days before her husband was charged with securities fraud - including $10 million on the eve of his arrest, Massachusetts’ top securities regulator reported Wednesday.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said Ruth Madoff withdrew $5.5 million on Nov. 25 and $10 million on Dec. 10, according to reports produced by Cohmad Securities, a firm co-owned by her husband.
Ruth Madoff’s role in her husband’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme has been a subject of much debate. To date, she has not been charged with any crime, and though she currently lives with her husband, who is under house arrest in their Upper East Side penthouse, she can come and go as she pleases.
Attorney Ira Sorkin, who represents both Madoffs, has said the financier admitted to his wife and their two sons only on Dec. 10 that his multibillion-dollar hedge fund was an elaborate Ponzi scheme. The 70-year-old mogul was arrested and charged with securities fraud on Dec. 11. Madoff told authorities he acted alone in confessing to the fraud, prosecutors have said.
But the revelation of Ruth Madoff’s withdrawals raises fresh questions about what she knew and when she knew it.
The information about her withdrawals was made public today as part of a lawsuit that Calvin brought against Cohmad Securities in an effort to revoke its Massachusetts brokerage license.
For years, Cohmad Securities, partly owned by Madoff, was a major conduit into his Ponzi scheme and received monthly payments from him for “professional services”, “brokerage services” and “fees for account supervision,” Galvin’s office said.
The payments totaled $67 million and made up 84 percent of Cohmad’s total income over the last eight years, the documents show.
That sum does not include commissions paid to broker Robert M. Jaffe, according to the complaint, because Cohmad did not respond to requests for that information.
Jaffe - a member of the wealthy Shapiro clan, major philanthropic donors in Boston and Palm Beach, Fla. - appeared under subpoena before Massachusetts regulators last week, but invoked his rights under the Fifth Amendment, declining to answer questions about his business, Cohmad, or his connection to Madoff Investments, according to the complaint.
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10 Comments
#1. LT 02.12.2009
That’s right - follow the money - doesn’t it make you wonder how much money Ellen Jafee, wife of Robert Jaffee, withdrew in the days leading up to the Madoff confession? How about withdrawals by the wife of the head of Fairfield Securities in Conn?
#2. TACOM 02.17.2009
Isn’t it nice what money and connections can do for the well-heeled when they commit crimes?
Bernie gets to rest his fat ass in his luxury apartment under guard from security paid for by his loving and complicit wife. Now what criminal wouldn’t want that set-up.
Since Bernie,(who’s never done an honest day’s work in his life) decided to confess to his sons, what are the odds that he didn’t also reveal the scheme to his wife? The removal of those 15 millions of dollars by sweetie-pie, should be confiscated and used to pay those poor suckers who couldn’t understand that the scheme was too good to be true. Ah, Amerika, you gotta love it!
I’d guess, that with just a tad bit of investigation, one could see many “withdrawals” by “complicit wifeys” just before Bernie went public. Don’t you?
#3. dave shaner 03.11.2009
I think the Madoffs should be treated like drug dealers and all there possessions taken away from them because they aquired every thing illegally.
#4. kb 03.11.2009
What a crock of @$%$@%#$. She never worked a job, but she is worth what??????? Take everything away from these people and send them to the tent city in Sacramento and set up a pup tent so that they get to see what happens to honest people, who tried to make things work and still lost everything……Boo Hoo to the Madoff’s -NOT!
#5. Stefanos 03.11.2009
I say they both deserve the death sentence. They are a huge part of why the world is what it is today. What they did is so rude to humanity that thesentence should be carried out in a new York City square.
#6. Pam 03.11.2009
Everything that they have should be taken away. Cars, houses, freeze bank accounts, take back all of the gifts that was given to their friends and family. And make sure that everything their partners and their sons have should also be under the microscope,too. I think that they should be put somewhere where the we the people don’t have to pay for them to set in some high class jail while we foot the bill. Maybe some uninhabited island without food, shelter, or no way to get off.
#7. Ginger 03.11.2009
I think that all involved should pay… never to have money again in their lives… exactly like Pam said, send them to an uninhabited island without food, shelter, or no way to get off and maybe some pills from them to take to leave this earth totally…I think what they have done is unbelievable!!! As humans it’s awful just plain terrible to see these fellow humans do these bad things!!!…What we do to each other on this earth…and WE are suppose to be the SMART ones…???
#8. hazen 03.11.2009
they will get away with bilking americans..as our legal system will make a deal..bernie will get some time…the family will succeed in taking money from dad’s deal…the crime will really go unpunished..and his family will live in wealth and in the arrogance of their lifestyles, they will win, americans will just see and forget this message the Madoffs left for hard working americans..and more “investors” will take the place of the unfortunates ones, now left with nothing!
#9. Jill 03.12.2009
Ruth is a CROOK just like her husband. She should try doing “the right thing” with the money he stole. How does this family live with themselves?
#10. WMM 03.13.2009
Itr is simple. Ruth was in the know as the 15 Million in question, it will be alledge by her attorneys, was a repayment for a loan to his fraudualent investment firm from her “funds”. To conduct this type of business she had full knowledge of his deception. The Paperwork that will be generated by her and Bernie’s attorneys will be an attempt to cover the withdraw. the timing was to the minute as Bernie and Ruth both knew that the indictment was coming down as the SEC investigation was transparent due to the necessary court documents and subpoenas filed to access their company records. Ruth withdrew the money to protect what she could before the government seized it. This was done with full knowledge of her husband’s fraud and the forthcoming government action. Remember people like Bernie and Ruth are true “Narcissus”.
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