Will Mrs. Madoff Slip Out the Back Door?

Ruth Madoff may soon have her mail forwarded to the Hotel Fleabag - assuming she stays out of prison.

Federal investigators are expected to ask the court to freeze about $93 million in assets, arguing that the lucre is the result of her husband’s multi-billion dollar fraud.

Ruth Madoff voluntarily agreed to freeze her holdings shortly after her husband, Bernie, was arrested. But the oral agreement isn’t legally binding and she could stash the cash out of the reach of investigators. That’s why the feds are expected to file legal arguments in about a week asking the court to seize Mrs. Madoff’s assets.

If seized, assets Mrs. Madoff now claims as her own could be used to repay some of the money investors lost in her husband’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
Bernie promised heady returns, but apparently never made a trade, and used new money to pay early investors. About 4800 were defrauded. Madoff, 70, now jailed in Manhattan, could be sentenced to as many as 150 years in prison when he returns to court in June.

There’s also speculation that freezing Mrs. Madoff’s assets could be the prelude to filing criminal charges. Investigators are believed to be compiling evidence of her complicity in her husband’s massive fraud, but there has been no official statement.

Assets held by Mrs. Madoff that the government seeks to freeze include:
 

• Houses in Manhattan, Long Island, New York, Palm Beach, Florida and France valued at $22 million.
  
  
• $17 million in cash.
  
  
• $45 million in municipal bonds.
  
  
• Three boats valued at about $10 million.
  
  
• A Steinway piano valued at $39,000.
  
  
• Silverware valued at $65,000.
  
  

If the feds grab her loot, perhaps she could become a maid like Maureen Ebel, 60, who lost about $7.3 million she and her late husband invested in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

Assuming, of course, that Mrs. Madoff is guilty of anything other than exquisitely bad taste in men.