The wife of disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff withdrew more than $15 million from a firm co-owned by her husband — including $10 million on the day before his arrest on charges he ran a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, the top security regulator in Massachusetts said Wednesday.Secretary of State William Galvin said Ruth Madoff, 67, withdrew $5.5 million on Nov. 25 and $10 million on Dec. 10 from Cohmad Securities Corp., a New York firm co-owned by her husband.

The secretary cited reports produced by Cohmad as proof of the withdrawals.

In New York, meanwhile, the government and lawyers for Madoff agreed to a 30-day delay in the Wednesday deadline for obtaining a grand jury indictment against the money manager.

The new deadline is March 13.

Since Madoff’s arrest Dec. 11, investigators have been assessing the financial damage inflicted on thousands of people who lost money investing with Madoff.

Galvin made his disclosure in a complaint asking Massachusetts state regulators to stop Cohmad from doing business in Massachusetts because it failed to provide information to Galvin about its relationship with Madoff. Galvin said Cohmad officials have ignored subpoenas or given incomplete responses as part of the state’s probe of how Massachusetts investors lost money in the Madoff scheme.

An associate of Madoff, Robert Jaffe, appeared last week before officers of the Massachusetts Security Division, but officials declined to say what Jaffe discussed. Galvin has described Jaffe as a registered agent and principal of Cohmad, which is in the same New York City building as Madoff’s firm.

Jaffe’s lawyers have said he had no knowledge of Madoff’s actions and was himself a victim who lost millions of dollars.

Galvin said the discovery of Ruth Madoff’s withdrawals raises questions about whether there was a broader conspiracy behind Bernard Madoff’s actions. Madoff has projected himself as someone who acted alone.

(Source: MyFoxNY)