Ruth Madoff, the wife of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, issued a statement on Monday afternoon following her husband’s sentencing of 150 years in prison for building the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
In her first public comments since her husband’s arrest in December, Mrs. Madoff said she was both embarrassed and confused by the man who she had known and loved for most of her life.
Here is her statement in its entirety:
I am breaking my silence now, because my reluctance to speak has been interpreted as indifference or lack of sympathy for the victims of my husband Bernie’s crime, which is exactly the opposite of the truth.
From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud, I have had two thoughts – first, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over. Many of my husband’s investors were my close friends and family. And in the days since December, I have read, with immense pain, the wrenching stories of people whose life savings have evaporated because of his crime.
My husband was the one we (and I include myself) respected and trusted with our lives and our livelihoods, often for many, many years, and who was respected in the securities industry as well. Then there is the other man who stunned us all with his confession and is responsible for this terrible situation in which so many now find themselves. Lives have been upended and futures have been taken away. All those touched by this fraud feel betrayed; disbelieving the nightmare they woke to. I am embarrassed and ashamed. Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused. The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years.
In the end, to say that I feel devastated for the many whom my husband has destroyed is truly inadequate. Nothing I can say seems sufficient regarding the daily suffering that all those innocent people are enduring because of my husband. But if it matters to them at all, please know that not a day goes by when I don’t ache over the stories that I have heard and read.
(Source: CBS News)
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13 Responses
Did she really never know anything about her husbands crimes until he was arrested?
#1: Do you evidence otherwise? You don’t. So provide her the benefit of the doubt, as you would like to be provided were you in her shoes.
embarrassaed confused………and also rich
They may wait till the publicity dies down and ask for a new sentence, but justice is a tricky game. There are those who C’VS a million times, murder and torture adults and children who get seven years, and the like; but not 150 years.
she feels so bad… and yet she’s holding on to 2.5 million.
#4-for a murderer to get seven years, especially for torturing adults and children, it would mean the court determined some degree of a mitigating circumstance such as insanity(which is usually being locked up for life in a mental asylum), or that the person was not directly involved (e.g. was coerced, was a accessory who wasn’t directly involved, etc.).
I Believe her.
She has been more betrayed than anyone else.
May she find Nechama and Hope and may she come Closer and Closer to Hashem Our Truly Loving Father. AMEN!
PS – She has no obligation to suffer because of the Actions of her Husband.
I don’t believe this women for a second! She is just trying to save her own skin.
what i heard yesterday was that 171 billion dollars of assests was turned over to the prosecuters. wouldnt that have been enough to pay out all the hurt parties . i am not talking about profits but rather investment. it would seem to me that the return of the investors origional investments would go a long way in satisfying the investors made destitute by these ponzi actions.secondly, there are many issues to be resolved,
the return of taxes that truly were not realized etc..etc..
what a mess this madoff created.who knows if it ever will be solved.
what i heard yesterday was that 171 billion dollars of assests was turned over to the prosecuters
I’m afraid you heard wrong. What happened is that a judge ordered Madoff to turn over $170 billion worth of assets. However, he probably does not have assets in that amount. The actual amount turned over is going to be far less than that.
The Wolf
>”I don’t believe this women for a second! She is just trying to save her own skin.” ~ Joe Yeshivish
>>Save her own skin from what exactly? There is no indication that she committed any crimes or even knew what her husband was up to…so she is in jeopardy of neither civil or criminal litigation. The only thing she need fear is for her reputation, if misguided people ascribe her husband’s crimes to her…and NO yeshivish person would ever do that (I hope)! As Anonymous #7 said correctly: “she has no obligation to suffer because of the actions of her husband.”
#8 we are still allowed to be dan leKaf zechus.
second of all al pi halocho she had no shaychus to this. I’m sure that she’s a toarn neshomo.
According to her husband she didn’t know about it:
“In court Monday, the 71-year-old Madoff said he alone orchestrated the massive Ponzi scheme. “How do you excuse lying to your brother and your two sons? How do you excuse lying and deceiving a wife who stood by you for 50 years and still does?”