Ruth Madoff got $2M from husband’s UK office

British investigators said Friday that Ruth Madoff got a $2 million payment from the London division of her husband’s securities firm just weeks before he was arrested for securities fraud.

That’s on top of the $15 million that she withdrew from a Massachusetts brokerage account beginning in late November - with $10 million removed on the eve of Bernard Madoff’s arrest.

Ruth Madoff has not been charged with any crime. But in the wake of her husband’s guilty plea March 12, investigators have said they are looking at the possible involvement of other family members. Madoff’s brother, Peter, and his two sons, Mark and Andrew, held senior positions at the firm. Peter and Ruth Madoff, along with Bernard Madoff, were also stockholders of the firm’s U.K. division, according to USA Today.

Bernard Madoff, 70, told authorities that he confessed to his wife and two sons that his business was actually a giant Ponzi scheme only on Dec. 10, according to court papers. He was arrested and charged with securities fraud Dec. 11 and subsequently pleaded guilty, saying he had acted alone.

But the latest report that Ruth Madoff was withdrawing additional sums before her husband’s arrest raises further questions about her knowledge of her husband’s scheme, if not her possible involvement.

British investigators told the Wall Street Journal that they believe the London division of Bernard Madoff’s securities firm, called Madoff Securities International Ltd., played a significant role in the fraud, and that they expect to bring criminal charges against other players in coming months.

The U.K. business was “a cog in the giant washing machine” of the scheme, Glyn Powell, a case controller at U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office, told the Wall Street Journal.

Powell said that U.K. authorities are focusing on the huge amounts of money that went back and forth between Madoff’s trading operations in the U.S. and the U.K.

Madoff has been held at the Manhattan Correctional Center since his guilty plea, which included charges of international money laundering. He faces 150 years in prison when he is sentenced June 16.

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• Ruth Madoff seeks to keep NY penthouse, $62M in assets - March 3, 2009
• Ruth Madoff withdrew $15M before husband’s arrest - February 11, 2009
• Feds to go after Ruth Madoff’s money too - March 16, 2009
• Court-appointed trustee goes after Madoff family’s wealth - May 6, 2009
• Madoff ordered to jail after pleading guilty - March 12, 2009
• Bankruptcy trustee sues Ruth Madoff - July 30, 2009
• Madoff to face his victims in court Thursday - March 8, 2009
• Sen. Lautenberg’s family sues Madoff’s brother - February 26, 2009
• Is the noose tightening around Peter Madoff? - March 26, 2009
• Charges against Madoff leave many unanswered questions - March 11, 2009