Ruth Madoff: Accomplice or Another Victim?

Both possibilities hard to believe, friends say of inseparable couple
By Sarah Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 15, 2009 8:50 AM CST
Ruth Madoff: Accomplice or Another Victim?
A home belonging to Bernard Madoff and his wife is seen in Palm Beach, Fla., on Dec. 30, 2008.   (AP Photo/Jon Way)

Bernard Madoff and his wife, Ruth, have been married for nearly 50 years and are practically inseparable. They worked together, and the outgoing blonde with the all-American look attracted friends to his hedge fund, the New York Times reports. So did she know or didn't she? "It’s hard to imagine that she could live with the guy for 50 years and have no inkling," one investor and old friend said.

Ruth Madoff wears a simple wedding band in lieu of the rocks favored by her social set, and favored quiet dinners with her adoring husband (“They always wanted a quiet table in the back, just the two of them.” says the owner of a favorite Italian restaurant). Madoff hasn't been charged and doesn't have her own lawyer, which suggests she's not being investigated. "Unless Madoff told her, why would she have any suspicion?" asks the author of a book on gullibility.
(More Bernard Madoff stories.)

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