Bernard Madoff's Wife Withdrew $15 Million Before Arrest

By now everyone in America with a television knows who Bernard Madoff is. The perpetrator of the biggest Ponzi scheme ever has burned countless investors for billions of dollars. But more disturbing is the fact that Madoff continues to live in the lap of luxury and is doing everything in his power it seems to hide money that could be used to pay back burned investors. Bernard Madoff is apparently not the only one in his family trying to deceive authorities. His wife is now known to have withdrawn $15 million before he was arrested.

In the latest of a string of money hiding, officials have confirmed that Ruth Madoff, Bernard Madoff's wife, withdrew large sums of money in the days that led up to her husband's arrest. According to reports, Ruth Madoff withdrew $5.5 million on November 25, 2008 and another 10 million on December 10, 2008. Bernard Madoff was arrested on December 11, 2008. Prosecutors have not said yet whether they will now pursue charges against Ruth Madoff but have not ruled out the possibility (source: news.yahoo.com).

This latest action by Madoff's wife follows an already grotesque tale of lies and deceit on the part of Madoff. Prosecutors in the case say that Madoff had written out over $173 million dollars in checks that he had planned to send out to his closest friends and family before he was arrested. He was also caught sending his family over $1 million in jewelry and heirlooms over the Christmas holiday (source: news.yahoo.com).

Perhaps what is most frustrating in this case is the fact that Madoff continues to live in style and comfort while those that he burned are suffering. The increasing cases of Madoff hiding money only add to the frustration. While many of his investors were high profile people that will be just fine even though they lost millions with the con artist, there were many more victims that lost everything they ever had.

While he is under "house arrest", being confined to a New York City Penthouse is hardly anything to complain about. We should all be so lucky. It just doesn't seem right that Madoff gets to continue the good life that he only acquired by ripping people off. Hopefully his time will come and he will be forced to lose some of the luxuries that he has grown accustomed to but never deserved to have in the first place. Only then will justice have been served on Bernard Madoff.