If Ruth Madoff is hoping to hold onto her fancy apartment, her millions in cash and her jet-setting lifestyle while her husband is in prison, experts have some advice for her: Get ready for an inquisition.
Specialists in family law and creditor rights believe Ruth, 67, will have a difficult time proving that most of her wealth is unrelated to Bernard Madoff’s fraud and should not be turned over to his victims.
“It’s going to be very hard for her to show that anything is untainted,” said Alton Abramowitz, national vice president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
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Even if she is never charged with a crime in the multibillion-dollar fraud that Bernie Madoff has acknowledged, the wealth his wife has enjoyed for decades will be subjected to scrutiny by federal prosecutors and civil lawyers.
Personal bank statements, credit-card receipts, tax returns and canceled checks, as well as Madoff’s business records, will all be inspected, lawyers say.
“The process gives us the right to look at all of it to try to prove that Mrs. Madoff did not earn this money on her own,” said Jeffrey Sonn, a Florida securities specialist representing dozens of Madoff claimants.
The records will show a life of luxury with homes in Palm Beach, Fla., the South of France and Montauk, besides the Madoffs’ $7 million Upper East Side penthouse. There was also travel by private jet and yacht.
Brad Friedman, a lawyer for a group of Madoff victims, said of Ruth, “I think ultimately she’s going to go down, but it’s going to take the government a while because Madoff’s not talking.”
“Everyone – the sons, the brother, the wife – I think they will all be shown to have guilty knowledge and be involved,” he said.