After barely 24 hours in prison, the Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff has launched an attempt to return to his Manhattan penthouse through an appeal for bail which discloses the true extent of his lavish lifestyle.

Documents filed by defence lawyers estimate that Madoff and his wife, Ruth, have assets worth between $823m and $826m (£589m to £591m) including four homes, four boats, a share in a private jet and a Steinway piano. To maintain their properties, they are burning through cash at a rate of $346,757 a month.

In a filing to the US appeals court, Madoff’s lawyer, Ira Sorkin, says his client was fully co-operative with the terms of his release before judge Denny Chin jailed him on Thursday.

Sorkin says the judge’s description of Madoff as a “flight risk” is “clearly erroneous”, pointing out that he made no attempt at escaping during three months under house arrest even though he was “always cognisant of the fact that he would die in prison”.

Sorkin says Madoff and his wife have told the US government that they are “willing to relinquish many of their assets”.

Details of the couple’s wealth are unlikely to please Madoff’s victims. The financier has in effect been living off the proceeds of crime for nearly two decades, having admitted in court that he began operating his investment firm as a Ponzi scheme as far back as the early 1990s.

The couple’s flat on Manhattan’s upper east side is valued at $4m, while a house in the millionaires’ playground of the Hamptons is worth $1.58m. A Palm Beach getaway has a price tag of $2.46m and a property in the French resort of Antibes is pegged at $900,000. They keep a $7m yacht named Bull on a $1.5m boatslip near their house on the Côte d’Azur. Another boat, Sitting Bull, is worth $320,000 while a vessel in Florida described as a “Rybovich fishing boat” is valued at $2.2m.

Read the rest of the story here.

Read more…

Have pity on Ruth Madoff – Personal Finance blog – Money …

Ruth Madoff has lost it all (or nearly… )? If George has some sense – either humanity or just simple logic, he may be better to use his effort to report on how some of the victims (who had truly LOST IT ALL) are trying to cope with this …

Put Yourself in Ruth Madoff’s Shoes — Daily Intel

The remains of the lives of Bernie and Ruth Madoff are being auctioned off this weekend at the Midtown Sheraton, and the U.S. Marshals office has made literally everything but the kitchen sink available: the wooden decoy ducks from the …

Ruth Madoff Must Make Do On $125000 Yearly – The Two-Way …

To most people, the $2.5 million the 68-year old Ruth Madoff gets to keep after agreeing to give up the rest of the billions of dollars in tainted assets she shared with convicted Ponzi scam artist husband Bernie, sounds like a lot of …

Should Ruth Madoff have her MacBook taken away? | Crave – CNET

A recent Vanity Fair article reveals that Ruth Madoff is an Apple MacBook user. Should she have to give it up if she hasn’t already? Read this blog post by David Carnoy on Crave.

Trustee Sues Ruth Madoff for $44.8 Million – DealBook Blog …

The trustee gathering assets for victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme filed suit against Ruth Madoff on Wednesday, seeking the return of $44.8 million she took out of her husband’s former company before he confessed to …

Mark Seal on Ruth Madoff | vanityfair.com

Ruth Madoff alone in her Manhattan duplex penthouse on June 26, the day she struck a deal with prosecutors to keep $2.5 million. Six days later, on July 2, six U.S. marshals arrived to take possession of the apartment and usher Ruth out …

PETA wants Ruth Madoff’s furs

NewYork’s homeless could be kept warm this winter in expensive furs owned by Ruth Madoff — if PETA has its way. The anti-fur campaigners have written to US Marshal Roland Ubaldo asking for the Madoff skins to be donated to the homeless …

Technorati Tags: bail, Bernie Madoff, court, furs, lawyer, legal, peta, ponzi, ruth madoff, scam

If ever there was a white-collar offender who seemed destined to do hard time, it is Bernard Madoff.

Is the scarlet “life” the appropriate stigma for white-collar offenders?

“Life imprisonment is traditionally reserved for cases of murder or rape. The harm caused by fraud is categorically different from the harm caused by violent criminals. At the end of the day, fraud crimes are about money, not the taking of life. And the justice system should, in my view, recognize that difference. If, under appropriate circumstances, a judge were to impose a sentence that effectively amounted to the rest of that defendant’s natural life, I would not find that to be wrong. However, the ability to pronounce a sentence of “life” should be reserved for those crimes involving extreme bodily injury or death.”

Technorati Tags: bail, bernard, Bernie Madoff, court case, David Siegal, executive bonuses, legal, legality