Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") has long suspected that Ruth Madoff was an active co-conspirator with her husband Bernie Madoff in his massive Ponzi scheme. (A reader, for instance, might want to review the TCM post Ruth Madoff: Rube or Accomplice to Bernie? ) Now Federal investigators seem to agree as they are "working around the clock" to freeze the assets of Ruth Alpern Madoff.

On Sunday March 15th 2009, The New York Post published the article Ruth In Crosshair$. This article suggests that federal authorities are working feverishly to prepare a filing asking a Federal judge to formally freeze all of Ruth Madoff's more than $93 million in assets as soon as possible. "The US attorneys will be in court in the next week or so to tell a judge that they believe Mrs. Madoff's assets are derived from ill-gotten gains and that they should be frozen for a certain period of time while the investigation is ongoing," an SEC source said.

The judge will then decide whether there is sufficient reason to believe her assets were legitimately earned or whether they were the proceeds of her husband's $65 billion Ponzi scheme. "You do not need the case to be nailed down, you just need to be able to convince the judge that there is a strong probability that the funds in question came from crime," the source said.

The article continues with additional information about a possible forthcoming criminal indictment. "Law-enforcement sources also told The Post that the asset freeze would be just the first step in a one-two punch against her as prosecutors work furiously to build a criminal case." In the past week, Mrs. Madoff has had needed to part legal counsel with Ira Sorkin who now principally is representing the legal interests of her husband. Ruth Madoff's new criminal defense lawyer, Peter Chavkin, apparently declined to comment on these developments.

Toomre Capital Markets LLC has thought that it was implausible that Ruth Madoff could make millions of dollars on her own independent of her husband's broker/dealer operation. After all, she came from relatively modest means in the Far Rockaways section of Queens. Myth has it that Bernie started his brokerage firm with some $5,000 that he saved from lifeguard and lawn work. Back in 1960, that was quite a sum from hard work for a young man to start a business with. Perhaps he got some assistance from Saul Alpern, Ruth's father, or his own parents. However, Bernie was not staked with such a significant amount that we might equate in today's inflated dollars to a million dollars or more. Surely, if a young wife had such personal wealth, she would assist her husband in starting a new business.

Ruth Madoff also has been reported to be the much more social part of the Madoff marriage. Allegedly, she was the active participant in the country club set speaking people and possibly recruiting investors to her husband's Ponzi scheme. Simultaneously, she also was (for at least a number of early years) the bookkeeper for Bernie's brokerage operation ensuring that the various ledgers balanced against bank account statements. That role apparently continued into the most recent decade.

It certainly will be a spectacle to watch Ruth Madoff profess her supposed innocence and why she should get to keep her multiple millions of dollars in assets. Regardless of whatever arguments are made, TCM suspects that asset forfeiture and jail time will be the result. If her assets are indeed frozen, look next for the Federal authorities to go after at minimum the amounts that were loaned by the parents to both sons Andy and Mark Madoff. Simultaneously, the public is likely to learn of asset freezes and likely criminal persecution of Bernie Madoff's brother, Peter Madoff. In short, the Madoff Ponzi-scheme prosecution is far from complete with Bernie Madoff's guilty pleas on March 11th 2009.