Feds Now Scrambling to Freeze Ruth Madoff's Millions

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 16, 2009 4:55 AM CDT
Feds Now Scrambling to Freeze Ruth Madoff's Millions
In this artist's sketch, Bernard Madoff apologizes during a hearing in federal court in New York last week.   (AP Photo/courtroom art, Elizabeth Williams)

Federal investigators are scrambling "around the clock" to freeze Ruth Madoff's $93 million in assets before it disappears, sources told the New York Post. "The US attorneys will tell a judge in the next week or so that they believe Mrs. Madoff's assets are derived from ill-gotten gains and that they should be frozen," an SEC source said.

Ruth Madoff, 67, voluntarily agreed to freeze her funds after mega-swindler hubby Bernard Madoff was busted, but the agreement is not legally binding. Shortly before Madoff was busted and charged in a $65 billion Ponzi sceme, his wife withdrew $5.5 million from a brokerage firm partly owned by her husband, where she has $45 million in bonds in her name. She later withdrew an additional $10 million from her account, according to court filings. (More Bernard Madoff stories.)

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