NEW YORK — Ruth Madoff has been sued by a special bankruptcy trustee for the return of $44 million allegedly taken from the fraudulent business of her husband, Bernard.
In a complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, trustee Irving Picard alleged that Ruth Madoff, who has maintained through her lawyers that she wasn’t involved in her husband’s Ponzi scheme, received tens of millions in fraudulent transfers, including payments to secure her investments in the Sterling Equities line of businesses.
The complaint also alleged that Ruth Madoff’s American Express card payments were sometimes covered to the tune of $2 million by Madoff company funds. Picard insists the monies were customer funds and is seeking to recoup the cash to help pay investors in the fraud of $13 billion to $21 billion. Newsday
