Ruth Madoff Agrees To Forfeit $80M

Date: Monday, June 29, 2009
Author: CBS News.com

The wife of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is reported to have given up her claim to more than $80 million in property whose forfeiture is being sought in the case against him, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Under a preliminary court order issued Friday, the Madoffs are to forfeit interests in $171 billion in assets, including properties belonging to them, including homes in Manhattan, Montauk, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla., worth a total of nearly $22 million.

The judge's order authorized the U.S. Marshals Service to sell the properties, along with certain cars and boats.

The Madoffs must also forfeit all insured or salable personal property contained in the homes.

Other seized assets include accounts at Cohmad Securities Corp., valued at almost $50 million, and at Wachovia Bank, valued at just over $13 million, and tens of millions of dollars in loans extended by Madoff to family, employees and friends.

Prosecutors said, under the arrangement, the government obtained Ruth Madoff's interest in all property, including more than $80 million worth of real estate, jewelry and cash assets that she had claimed was hers.

The order left her $2.5 million in assets, which the Order stated will be tendered to her once she vacates the real property and surrenders all personal property.

Ruth Madoff was not charged in the case against her husband. She is not expected to be present at frederal court in Manhattan on Monday when Judge Denny Chin announces the sentence against the financier.