The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernie Madoff’s assets today sued the disgraced financier’s wife — asking for a staggering $44 million spent on a “life of splendor” at the expense of duped investors.
Trustee Irving Picard said in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan bankruptcy court that Madoff’s wife Ruth “for decades lived a life of splendor” using money that belonged to investors of her husband’s investment firm.
The 71-year-old Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after admitting he ran a $64 billion Ponzi scheme.
Ruth Madoff was never charged with any crime.
Picard detailed many of Ruth’s expenses over the years, including spending $2.3 million of company funds on a yacht and $1.1 million with the firm’s credit card to buy personal items.
Picard said he filed the lawsuit in an attempt to get compensatory and punitive damages for his clients.
A federal judge recently allowed Ruth Madoff to keep $2.5 million, which Picard is also trying to recover.
Ruth Madoff’s lawyer, Peter Chavkin, said in a statement that Picard’s action was “wrong as a matter of law and fairness.”
He said the lawsuit was “perplexing and totally unjustified” because his client has already forfeited to the federal prosecutor’s office nearly all of the assets described in the lawsuit.
“At the same time, after a thorough and comprehensive investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s office determined that Ruth Madoff was entitled to keep property of $2.5 million because that property could not be linked to the fraud,” he said.