Report: Ruth Madoff Leaving Husband Bernie After 52 Years Of Marriage

August 15, 2011 3:42 PM

Ruth Madoff (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Poor Bernard Madoff.

First, he was busted for orchestrating a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Then he was jailed for 150 years. And, now it seems that his wife of 52 years, Ruth, is calling it quits, according to a report in the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond reports: Rebuilding Her Life

According to Madoff biographer Diana Henriques, Ruth, 70, has not visited her husband in prison since the December suicide of their eldest son, Mark.

Henriques, the first reporter to interview Madoff in prison and author of “The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust,” appeared on CBS’ “The Early Show” this morning and told host Chris Wragge that Ruth stayed with her husband because, her friends say, she had so much compassion for the schemer.

madoff Report: Ruth Madoff Leaving Husband Bernie After 52 Years Of Marriage

Bernie Madoff (Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)

“She fell in love with him when she was 13, married when she was 18,” Henriques said. “It was a 50-year romance, and she simply couldn’t leave him. But for all practical purposes, the Madoff marriage was split apart by that 150-year prison sentence that will keep Madoff behind bars for the rest of his life. So my sense is that Ruth is now focusing all her efforts on rebuilding a relationship with her surviving son, Andrew, and her grandchildren.”

Henriques also told Wragge that, ”Bernie wants Ruth to do whatever she must to rebuild her life, even at the expense of their obviously limited time together. He cares very much about her, and I think wants her to have the comfort of her family in the years to come.”

And as far at the Ponzi scheme? Henriques said things may be looking up for the victims.

“It’s a remarkable recovery,” Henriques said. “… The trustee, Irving Picard, is on track to potentially return victims up to 50 cents on the dollar of their out-of-pocket losses. Now, obviously, you can’t rebuild the shattered lives. You can’t recover the homes that were sold and the college educations. But in Ponzi scheme terms, this is a phenomenal recovery, if he only gets 50 cents on the dollar. That was the good news. He landed another billion-dollar out-of-court settlement just a few weeks ago, which was another big gain for him.”

Do you have any sympathy for the Madoff family? Sound Off below

Report: Ruth Madoff Leaving Husband Bernie After 52 Years Of Marriage

Don Williams

Why doesn’t Bernie just buy a pardon off of Obama the way Marc Rich got a pardon from Bill Clinton? Heck, Marc’s enjoying his Impressionists and getting honorary degrees nowdays. (Wiki on him)

Pocho Basura

DON,
HOW ABSURD!
This is the beggining of THEGLORIUSOBAMMARE-ELECTIONPAGENT’
The fire sale, will begin after the Nov 2012 election.
Sky Pilot

Exactly! And if you do a bit of Googling, you’ll find that Bernie was a very generous soul to various people in the Democratic party, including Barack Obama. Some like Chuck You Schumer supposedly returned the contribution, but many more people didn’t because their names haven’t come up – yet.

Political contributions corrupt because those that ‘contributed’ (paid off) a particular candidate now wants some goodies and favors in return.

Think Soros – he invested big in Barry Soetoro and now he’s getting everything he wants.

Johnny Handsome

Hey Sky Pilot: That would go for each and every elected member in the country who got a campaign contribution. If you think this is a problem that only President Obama has then you are clearly a Fox 5 fool. Bush one and two where paid for by the Oil companies. They got the energy bills they wanted – Think Enron. Every Republican has signed some oath not to raise taxes to the determinant for the economy of the United States. How the heck does ONE person get the entire Republican party to sign away the people they represent?
TomB

Johnny, Enron was an oil company? hmmm…. BTW, the Enron thing fell apart in October 2001. Surely you dont think that all of the criminal buildup happened only in the 10 months after Bush’s inauguration? You might not be a “Fox 5 fool,” but you are definitely a fool, and a schill to boot.
White Cracker

Chuck You Shumer is a Jew! Jewish people are the people that Berney took advantage of! I wonder if Chuck You had any money invested w/him????

schwartzer

watch swindling the goyim on YT- both episodes
JIM

SHE LIVED A VERY PLUSH LIFE WITH ALL A PERSON COULD HAVE, SHE SHOULD BE SENT TO JAIL AS WELL.
Jihad Resistance

Say what you want, make cute comments, but REMEMBER your government is doing the exact same thing as Madoff and YOU are letting them do it.

marc

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH!!! THAT IS A TERRORIST STATEMENT! YOU ARE LIABLE FOR TREASON NOW! THE THOUGHT POLICE ARE COMING AFTER YOUR LYING ASS — PRONTO!

YOU CAN NOT RUN — YOU CAN NOT HIDE — GIVE YOURSELF UP AND RECANT YOUR LIES!

LOVE, CLINTON, BUSH, OBAMA

Nevermore

LOL! Well said, marc!

adam grant

O come on Mr. Resistance. The governement is only taking money out of our paychecks to pay for our own social security checks sometime in the future. Just becasue they happen to be taking that money right now and paying it back out again to those currently receiving social security doesn’t make it a Ponzi scheme. Does it? Let see, according to the securities and exchange commission a Ponzi scheme is ” an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.”. Well waht do you know folks, Jihad is right. Also nothworht is the SECs answer to the following quesion:

Why do Ponzi schemes collapse?
With little or no legitimate earnings, the schemes require a consistent flow of money from new investors to continue. Ponzi schemes tend to collapse when it becomes difficult to recruit new investors

In a few short years there will be more people collecting SS than contribute. That means this Ponzi scheme will fail.

BBReggie

I’m sorry, but when they married she most likely promised to stay with him thru good times and bad. She had 50 years of really good times – she should stay with him until “death do us part”.

Leslie

And run the risk of losing her one remaining son to suicide? She should try to make what she can of what is left of her family. And her son should help her.

citizen x

She had to know, had to have an idea something was up and sorry for her loss but her son knew if he killed himself the feds or anyone else couldnt touch his socked away money, what does she live on? She has money from the scheme hidden surely
McQ

Give the poor woman a break. Bernie probably kept it secret even from her. Is that reason to crucify her – because she married him and had his children? I say let her rebuild her life w/ the time she has left on this earth. Let her be w/ her grandkids. He’s been found guilty, he admitted he ran a long-term scam.
Esther Rodriguez Abreu

What can break up a marriage, is the death of a child. Often when a child dies, whatever underlying issues in the couple’s lives comes to surface. Just perhaps for Ruth, her son’s suicide was the straw that broke the camel’s back. People lost billions, a woman lost her son along the way.

Claudia

I totally agree! She stood by until her child killed himself over it. Whether he was guilty or not, his mother loved him, as good mothers do. This was indeed the straw!
Lynn D

I have to agree.When a guy in my class died as a result of an accident, his parents split up shortly afterwards.
karl anglin

Her son’s death was the final straw for Ruth

Soap

Our government is 10 times worse.! PS I don’t think he gives a hoot what she does. Probably still part of a scheme.

TomB

Soap, the government is more like 1000 as worse. Madoff’s ponzi scheme may have been multi-billion but as soon as the government decided to use all the social security taxes for the general funding of the government, they turned that into a multi-trillion dollar ponzi scheme.

npt

Guess she’s not a Tammy Wynette fan…

pm

more like Tammy Faye Baker

Roger Dowd

Good one, pm!

Jaded Warrior

I smell a reality show here . . .
J Ruben Kincaid

Rats abandon a sinking ship.
The Clintidote

If everyone named Madoff starves to death, I’m ok with it.
GozieBoy

Keep in mind that the main difference in Madoff’s ponzi scheme and that of Obama’s is that he could not print money to keep it going.

ablecynic

Well said!

Jimmy

I don’t feel sorry for the majority of the people involved with Madoff. These investors threw their money at Madoff and kept at it earning a returns that superceded the normal of the times by at least 10%. And they invested almost all of their liquid assets with Madoff which is a no-no; no more than 10% of their investments should be in any one place but they smelled high returns and their greed got the better of them. What the Madoffs have done for the small honest investor is to drive interest rates down to a fraction of 1% and will eventually force the elderly who are no living off their bank interest but rather their hard saved dollars either into bankruptcy or onto the welfare rolls when the bank account reaches zero. But the bankers and Wall Street executives who had red balance sheets and took TARP $ are still collecting thire $20 Million salaries.

steveinberks

It wasn’t the strong returns that made the hedge fund managers interested. (The returns weren’t actually that spectacular, but they were acceptable because of they were “reliable.”) It was the fact that Madoff allowed hedge fund managers (who operated what are referred to as “feeder funds”) to pocket 100% of the management fees. These hedge fund mangers got paid handsomely for no work — that’s what kept them coming back.

D

She can rot in hell too. Yeah right she didn’t know something was cooking. Guess she was married to the only Investment guy in the history of investing who was a genius and not doing something sketchy.
bill burns

Rumuor has it she is banging Mayor Bloomberg.
Peter

poor ruth

The Clintidote

I hope she’s poor now. Dirt poor. Collaborators deserve poverty.

DEWEY

I HAD “NO” INVESTMENTS W/MR. MADOFF BUT IF I DID, MOST OF THE BLAME WOULD HAVE LIE ON MY SHOULDERS, HE DID NOT PUT A GUN TO ANYONES HEAD & SAID TO GIVE ALL YOU HAVE SO I CAN INVEST IT ! ! WHAT HE DID WAS WRONG & HE WILL PAY A DEAR PRICE FOR IT. IF YOU GIVE SOMEONE ALL OF YOU LIFE’S SAVINGS, IT IS ALSO UP TO YOU CHECK WITH PERIODCALLY TO SEE WHATS GOING ON WITH YOUR INVESTMENTS. LIKE LL COOL J SAID, I WILL HIRE YOU & SOMEONE TO WATCH YOU & SOMEONE TO THEM ETC.

D

You are completely forgetting about the thousands of people who did not invest with Madoff directly, but with companies who fell for his scheme. These people lost their retirement, life savings, everything and likely had no idea who Bernie Madoff was.

Got Financial Fraud?

What’s the difference between Bernie Madoff and Benjamin Israel Bernanke? BOTH run PONZI SCHEMES, BOTH defraud people of their savings, yet only ONE of them is actually in jail.

IgnoranteElephante

It is Benjamin Shalom Bernanke, not Israel. The jewishness of both is well noted.

charW

Forgiven. Everyone deserves forgiveness. To not forgive is to imprison oneself.

jimeejohnson

In a world of hate, your comment is well taken.
Mike

Spot on. Hurrah for this great remark. All you can do is forgive and move forward.
Jack

WRONG! No one deserves forgiveness. Forgiveness can only be given by the victim and the perpetrator must ask for it and accept his sin and punishment.
Bruce McClarron

Forgiveness… My A$$!!! I’ll forgive him all the way to the graveyard!!! Madoff was a “GREEDY”, scheming, deceiving, lying SOB!!!
guest

You’re right. Absolutely.
steve

the world financial scheme is nothing but a ponzi fraud. trom the fedral reserve,stock market,derivatives trade and mortgage business to the world bank. lack of ethics,morals,empathy,honesty and a love for truth is not a market madoff cornered. it’s a disease we’re all a victim of without the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts and minds.
Maggie

I agree with charW. To err is human; to forgive, Devine.

Anne Hill

absolutely laughable. she just now thinks he’s not worth it. Oy vey iz mir
Mr. Incredible

Sympathy? None. Absolutely none… for the entire family!

Jay Seibert

I don’t have much sympathy for anyone involved in the case.

I refuse to believe “investors” were getting that kind of return for decades and were completely unaware that things weren’t on the up and up. They just didn’t want to know and the SEC didn’t seem to care.

Frostie

While the getting was good she didn’t leave.

Mr. Triangle

Interesting observation.
Marie

Frostie, was just thinking the same.

Scott E. Johnson

Here’s someone worse than Madoff. Read then forward this link to everyone you know, so they don’t get scammed: http://texsquixtarblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-is-worse-bernie-madoff-or-rich.html

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Report: Ruth Madoff Leaving Husband Bernie After 52 Years Of Marriage

August 15, 2011 3:42 PM

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