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WORLD> America
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Madoffs were worth more than $823M - file
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-14 10:19 Thus far no one else has been implicated in the scam, and it could be a while before anyone else is arrested and the full extent of the swindle comes to light. On Thursday, Madoff took all the blame for his fraud and tried to create a wall between himself and his family.
The FBI has refused to discuss the status of the investigation. But experts say it's certain that Madoff's closest relatives and associates are high on authorities' list of people who may have known what was going on. Among those under scrutiny is Madoff's wife, Ruth, who withdrew $15.5 million from a Madoff-related brokerage firm in the weeks before Madoff's Dec. 11 arrest, including a $10 million withdrawal on Dec. 10. Passing references to Ruth Madoff during her husband's guilty plea Thursday drew laughter from a mocking audience of investors still bristling over a disclosure several weeks ago that she wants to keep $69 million in assets, including the couple's $7 million Manhattan penthouse. In addition, she faces potential civil litigation as a result of the collapse of her husband's financial empire. Her lawyer has declined to comment. Also on investigators' radar is Madoff's 63-year-old brother, Peter, who was instrumental in building Madoff's investment firm. In the days following his brother's arrest, Peter Madoff helped regulators examine the company's books, his lawyer said at the time. But the brother resigned about a week later and, like the rest of the family, has never spoken publicly about the case. Bernard Madoff's sons Andrew, 42, and Mark, 45, also worked for their father in a trading operation he has insisted was legitimate and separate from his fraudulent investment advisory service. The sons, who shared their father's extravagant lifestyle, also have denied any wrongdoing through their attorney. The lawyer has called them victims of the scheme and claimed they had "no access to overall financial information about their father's firm." Besides the family, investors have questioned the role of Frank DiPascali, chief financial officer of Madoff's money management business. A lawyer for DiPascali declined to comment on Friday. Lawyers for the brother and sons did not immediately return telephone messages. So far, federal authorities are believed to have spoken to several clerks who handled some of the voluminous paperwork Madoff admits he fabricated, including tens of thousands of fake account statements.
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