Bernard Madoff $50 Billion Ponzi Scheme

[scion]

The sad new life of exiled Ruth Madoff

By Isabel Vincent May 14, 2017 | 12:58am
http://nypost.com/2017/05/14/the-sad-new-life-of-exiled-ruth-madoff/

Every morning, the petite blonde with the bright red lipstick walks the few blocks from her nondescript condo to the Upper Crust Bagel Company on Sound Beach Avenue, the main drag in this picturesque New England hamlet of 6,600 people.

Just about everyone who lives here knows it’s Ruth Madoff in exile, and they mostly leave her alone.

They know the broad outlines of her fall — how her privileged world exploded in December 2008 when her husband, Bernie, confessed to the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, an $18 billion fraud for which he is serving a 150-year sentence.

Ruth lost everything — her money, social status, husband and her two sons. Mark, the eldest, committed suicide in 2010, and Andrew died of cancer in 2014.

Ruth will turn 76 this week, two days before HBO airs “Wizard of Lies,” a dramatic retelling of the fall of the house of Madoff, starring Robert de Niro as Bernie and Michelle Pfeiffer as Ruth.

How does she feel about the film’s release?

“I have nothing to say,” she said when The Post knocked on the door of the 989-square-foot town house she rents in this bucolic burg of neatly trimmed hedges, where children wait for the school bus outside beautifully restored shingled cottages, and homemakers in Spandex drive their husbands in Audis and Land Rovers to the Metro-North ­station.

It’s only an hour’s train ride to Manhattan, but it’s a world away for Ruth, who once owned a sprawling apartment on the Upper East Side and mansions in Palm Beach and Montauk.

After her husband’s conviction, Ruth was forced to give up her palatial digs, and was no longer welcome among her socialite friends. Donald Trump, who denounced Bernie as “a sleazebag and a scoundrel without par,” refused to rent an apartment to Ruth in any of his Manhattan buildings as she desperately searched for a place to live, a source close to the ­Madoff family told The Post.

Before her husband was sentenced in 2009, Bernie made a deal with prosecutors. In exchange for giving up most of their wealth — $80 million worth of mansions, jewelry, cars and art — Ruth was allowed to keep $2.5 million.

Ruth took the cash and skipped town.

After briefly living in an exclusive condo in Boca Raton, Fla., Ruth came to Old Greenwich in 2012, to be close to her three grandchildren who live nearby. She lived for two years at 57 Tomac Ave. in a quaint house, built in 1905 and then owned by her son Andrew and his estranged wife, Deborah West, public records show.

“She was a very nice neighbor is all I have to say,” said Mike Worden, who lived across the street from the ­Madoff house.

Two months after Andrew died of a rare form of lymphoma, Ruth was booted from her son’s home. It was sold by West two years later and was recently razed by its new owner to make room for new construction.

Ruth moved from 57 Tomac to the town house in the condominium complex called The Gables, where she now lives. The gated community features a heated swimming pool, squash courts, gym and security, although there was no guardhouse attendant when The Post visited last week. A one-bedroom unit was listed for $3,100 a month

It was here that Pfeiffer reportedly sat in Ruth’s kitchen in preparation to play her in “Wizard of Lies,” the drama directed by Barry Levinson. “She sat in her kitchen and studied her,” a source said.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate to say she ‘cooperated’ with the film,” Levinson told Page Six. “Michelle simply spent a little time talking to Ruth. I don’t think Michelle talked much about the script. It was simply to get to know her — however brief the time spent.”

Neighbors say Ruth mainly keeps to herself in Old Greenwich, where she tools around town in a new silver Toyota Prius.

But mostly she just walks and walks, neighbors say.
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http://nypost.com/2017/05/14/the-sad-new-life-of-exiled-ruth-madoff/