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Ruth Madoff's Private World
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Lavish Palm Beach shopping sprees, a sister-in-law in poverty, quiet movie nights—Lucinda Franks offers an exclusive look at Ruth's life, then and now.
As Ruth Madoff swept into Palm Beach last month with a quintet of girlfriends, her $7,500 Birkin bag dangling, her husband’s 74-year-old sister, who was ruined by Bernie’s scam, was watering plants and driving people to the airport just to make ends meet.
Sondra Wiener, forced to make pocket money like an out-of-work laborer, endures the pity of her neighbors. After her brother's scheme collapsed, she also put her home in a gated community outside Palm Beach up for sale. Her brother mailed her and other family members Cartier, Tiffany, and other expensive jewelry in December (which violated a court order and were repossessed), but sources say they do not think her sister-in-law Ruth has given her money. And Ruth is believed to have plenty, even now. Although authorities have seized her property and bank accounts—most recently the Palm Beach home and the antique yacht restored by Bernie—investigators describe caches of laundered funds hidden around the world in Ruth’s name.
When Carl Shapiro heard of Bernie’s arrest, friends thought that the 96-year-old was having a coronary. But this Sunday, he looks surprisingly complacent.
During a recent visit to Palm Beach, I found that the ethos of this balmy, nonchalant Florida retreat for the elite had been disturbed. The palms lining the streets slap menacingly in the wind, luxurious Worth Avenue is eerily empty, abandoned by the economy and the evaporation of capital into Bernie's fantasy bourse. Madoff's victims, in addition to everything else, are spooked. They don’t want their names known because they are afraid of being called before a grand jury or afraid of being called to give back profits even though they sustained losses. Some are even afraid of being called on by the Russian mob, which allegedly was scammed too.
The name Madoff inspires an eerie silence. In particular, the very mention of Ruth seems to arouse fear. Those few who knew her well won't talk about her, those who knew her less well will only talk anonymously.
“Everyone down here thinks she was involved in the Ponzi scheme," said a leading socialite in Palm Beach. "She and Bernie were always collaborators. Look, let me tell you what happened to my friend. Her husband wouldn’t let her invest with the Madoffs. Then after her husband died, Bernie wasn’t taking any new investors. She talked to Ruth who said give Bernie a call and she told him 'Ruth knows what this is all about' and Bernie simply said 'OK, I'll take your investment.' And this woman gave him the store and rued the day she had met Ruth Madoff."
"She came into town briefly, I think it was a couple of weeks before her husband was jailed," said one shopkeeper in Palm Beach's most famous commercial street. "There were five friends with her and they were making their way down Worth Avenue. She had this huge Hermes Birkin bag floating around—you have to get on a two year waiting list for one of those you know." Another observer added that the group browsed through boutiques like CJ Laing and Angela Moore and had lunch at an Old World Old Money restaurant called Renato's.
"We thought it was odd," the shopkeeper said. "Where did she get these girlfriends? We had never seen her before without Bernie." She reportedly stayed at the famous Breakers Hotel—where Bernie has in the past rented a cabana—perhaps because she had word that authorities would seize her multimillion dollar waterfront home and did not want to be in it when it happened. The wood shuttered balconied mansion, plus two boats and the yacht, were actually seized several days ago, the locks changed, and Ruth Madoff banned forever.
The Madoffs, for all their extravagant possessions, did not aspire to be part of The Crowd in Palm Beach. They did not go to most charity balls and parties, and simply refused, except on the occasion of Carl Shapiro's birthdays, to go to Colette's, the eating club of the social high-hatters. "I don’t think we even have a picture of them," said a reporter at the Palm Beach Daily News, the society newspaper they call The Shiny Sheet.
Instead, the Madoffs liked to go to movies and attend movie-club discussions. "Ruth is really smart. You don’t get into Queens College and then get a master's if you aren’t," said an acquaintance.
Though they could afford any restaurant in town, the couple favored informal bistros and grills, like Cucina's where they went three or more times a week. There, when owner Nick Coniglio stopped to talk to them, Ruth became "kind of withdrawn. She wasn't pushy, she didn’t wear a lot of ostentatious jewelry, She let Bernie do the talking, you know, the traditional supportive wife." From afar, he noticed how much they talked to each other. "She had this look of authority. She sat there smoking cigarettes, whispering to Bernie."
Added a close friend: “Bernie never drank and Ruth had just a little wine. They were just antisocial."
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Sources: Madoff Indictments Imminent
Lucinda Franks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who was on the staff of the New York Times and has written for the New Yorker and the New York Times Book Review and Magazine. Her latest book is My Father's Secret War, about her father, who was a spy for the OSS during World War II.
Madoff's Other Girlfriends
Lucinda Franks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who was on the staff of the New York Times and has written for the New Yorker and the New York Times Book Review and Magazine. Her latest book is My Father's Secret War, about her father, who was a spy for the OSS during World War II.
Ruth's $45 Million Stash
Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime. He also is President of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.
Lucinda Franks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who was on the staff of the New York Times and has written for the New Yorker and the New York Times Book Review and Magazine. Her latest book is My Father's Secret War, about her father, who was a spy for the OSS during World War II.
Southpaw
Palm off $200 to the maitre d' for a table at the Palm Beach Grill? Time for the IRS to check out this money grabber's declared income.
EENY44
all good except for the bit about The Palm Beach Grill. $200 just to get in. That's a bunch of nonsense. Maybe a rez a week in advance during high season...but that's about it. Makes we wonder how "colored" the rest of the report is. You can't believe any of these people.
bindish
Excellent. Ms. Franks recreates the public perceptions of the Madoffs before the collapse. That aloof, superior and isolated
demeanor, which undoubtedly added to their supposed cache,
and which enticed investors to want in. No way that Ruth was
not involved...up to and above her blond bob. As for the PB Grill, one assumes that the $ 200. was a requirement for non-regulars, one-timers, tourists. Again, thank you to The Daily
Beast and Lucinda Franks for enlightening aspects of the
Madoff affair. These are insights not covered elsewhere.
ArielAZ
In Ruthie's day, anybody could get into Queens College, if your high school grades were decent enough and you passed your Regents exams. Probably just as easy now.
AylinSenturk
Outside of writing some joke of a charity cookbook, Ruth Madoff was but a pampered Upper East Side housewife bleaching her hair and getting facelifts. She's completely complicit in profiting from her husband's ill-gotten gains. http://is.gd/m9nz
dulaurence
According to Wikipedia, Philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno defined schadenfreude as "largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate. If this ain't it, nothing is!
VenusMuse
Great article Lucinda! I hope you are offered a deal to write a book about the Madoffs!
Martyz42
The whole family needs to be looked at in the same way as the head of the snake is looked at. I refuse to believe that any of them did not know that this whole thing as a scam. It is times like this that I feel sad that the old English "POTTERS PRISONS" are no more.... I can think of no other punishment that would better suit them all then the dungeons of those prisons of the poor. Some might think that as torture, some an eye for an eye, me I think it is deserved by those that hurt so many people without giving it a second thought.
NinaMiller
This is the kind of BS none of us need. The kind that puts the focus on the villainess of the moment, defined by her excessive shopping, grooming, greed, selfishness. The new Leona / Imelda / etc. that we can all love to hate.
Keep the focus where it belongs - on the man who created this scam and the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people he hurt. Talk about *his* spending habits, *his* greed. The tired old narrative of the "rich bitch" illuminates nothing, and detracts attention from the systems and institutions that enabled Madoff.
We should be exploring the new narrative of the "masters of the universe" who have done more to weaken this country than any spy or traitor ever could. Benedict Arnold himself couldn't hold a candle to Madoff.
Bruceene
I just can not figure out, just who did they think they were?
I think HE THOUGHT that he would get away with it, and just die off.
genoftheheart
dulaurence- interesting comment about schadenfreude and Adorno. I pulled up another interesting Adorno observation:
Adorno saw the culture industry as an arena in which critical tendencies or potentialities were eliminated. He argued that the culture industry, which produced and circulated cultural commodities through the mass media, manipulated the population. Popular culture was identified as a reason why people become passive; the easy pleasures available through consumption of popular culture made people docile and content, no matter how terrible their economic circumstances. The differences among cultural goods make them appear different, but they are in fact just variations on the same theme. He wrote that "the same thing is offered to everybody by the standardised production of consumption goods" but this is concealed under "the manipulation of taste and the official culture's pretense of individualism". [10] Adorno conceptualised this phenomenon as pseudo-individualization and the always-the-same. He saw this mass-produced culture as a danger to the more difficult high arts. Culture industries cultivate false needs; that is, needs created and satisfied by capitalism. True needs, in contrast, are freedom, creativity, and genuine happiness. But the subtle dialectician was also able to say that the problem with capitalism was that it blurred the line between false and true needs altogether.
A passing resemblance to the Palm Beach set, wouldn't you say? Incidentally, I'm getting on my soapbox to set the record straight. The term "schadenfroh" (adjective form) was coined by Nietzsche and employed twice in "The Gay Science", published in 1881. None of the dictionary references give proper credit to the origin of the term.
amapola101
I dont agree with her lavishes, especially stolen from the back of innocent people. and they all have to pay. But alot of our bankers, ceos, politicians, mega wealthy,mega corporates, wives, mistresses and girlfriends lead the same life. and jet setters and socialites, and they have every right to do it,and enjoy everything and throw it out on toys, and hobbies and parties, and fashions, and luxuries, or legos, dolls, or collecting crystals.It is their earned money, and again no envy to those who have it, and can.But here ahas been obsende amounts of greed and money,tAgain I am talking about those rewarded for companies, and actions that have failed, people who have manipulated ,distorted, and by greedy people, that were allowed to ravage,and hurt innocent hard working people.There are many that belong in the Maddoff club,and we cannot do anything about it.No oversights, protection,help,they all helped each other. and when you ahve been hurt,taken, and used by bankers, iinvestors,politicians,etc who did not help you, warn you, care for you, we are all paying the price and they are a form of Maddofs.
amapola101
Nina Miller, I think we are sort of saying the same. thingThere always will be crooks and thieves, of the moment. that doesnt excuse anything. I remember the Imelda Marcus, and I had 2 clients, that had almost the same amount, of shoes,and the husbands were no saints!! .and who am I to start throwing stones just because people are wealIty,that is not what I mean.What a sad world if there was no wealth!!We all enjoy and profit, from each other, interact and we all give each other much more than money,But there are many who are not called crooks like Maddoff that belong in his club, sitting in high positions, and place.There also are millions, of wonderful, helpfull decent, wealthy hard working persons.We have all in every field.,every walkway, and in every class ,of people.
lisakschatz
Lucinda
please do some investigating about the SIPC payments...where are they?? Has anyone received their SIPC checks yet???
Annie57
After reading this article, I feel all but certain taht Ruth knew what was going on. I really think that the Madoffs were partners in crime. Is she being investigated?
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