I’m torn…as a business partner with my husband I know everything about where our money comes with.  But, there is a age group out there that were taught to let their husabnds deal with financial matters and to just enjoy their life as mothers and homemakers.

Yes she had the resources to hire maids, attendants and live in a beautiful home but she did not personally pay the bills or deal in his work.

Afterall he was highly respected for many of those prior years. 

She is quite likely a victim as well and has to pay the price with the others who lost alot!  At least she is not behind bars..for now unless they find evidence to implicate her as well.

"[Ruth] had to give up $80 million in property and other assets"—oh, cry me a river. I’ve never had that much money and never will, yet I will survive. She has to live on $2 million now, before or after taxes? She is lucky to have that. Good luck getting a job, Ruth, unless it turns out you will, in fact, be making license plates.

IMO, women like my belated mother who had no idea how to pay a bill or write a check after my father died, are not as prevalent today; she spawned a generation, mine, who refused to be helpless, who refused to live like a child, unaware of where the family funds were going.

Ruth was savvy enough to be in the family business—she knew exactly what and who her husband was. All these excuses for her just don’t make sense. Women are smarter than that. She knew.

If the rest of the family goes to trial over this, it may be hard to find an untainted jury. Then again, they found a jury for Bernie.

Then, on Dec. 10, 2008, Squillari knew something strange was going on. She watched as Madoff, his brother and his sons had what appeared to be a tense meeting in the office. Madoff appeared so shaken his sons had to help him put on his coat, she told “Good Morning America.”

Earlier that morning, she said, Madoff’s wife Ruth had tried to sneak past her desk. She had come into the office to withdraw $10 million from her personal account.

The next day, Madoff was arrested for perpetrating what is believed to be the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

According to Squillari, Madoff’s wife was completely devoted to him and was involved in the day to day operations of the company. Madoff once told Squillari that he had his wife watching the company’s books because “nothing gets by her,” Squillari said.

As Madoff’s secretary for more than 20 years, Squillari got to know the disgraced financier better than most people.

“People describe a couple that was really glued to each other,” Franks points out. “They didn’t golf, except with each other. They didn’t eat, except with each other.”

I find the idea that Bernie may be received in prison as a celebrity to be a bit perverse.

Along with others here, I don’t buy a word of anything Mrs. Madoff says. My 79 year old mother was never involved in my dad’s business and has no head for money matters. Nevertheless, she had a general idea of what went on. Mrs. Madoff actually handled the books.

Seems to me that she would have very good attorneys. Council are aware she may be next, and may have been waiting for the sentencing. This seems like a carefully crafted PR blitz with the aim of garnering sympathy in the event of future prosecution.

While normally a bleeding heart, I have no compassion for poor, "impoverished" Ruth. This woman lived an extremely easy, ostentatious life paid for by people who trusted them. Many others in her age group have had to sell their homes, etc. in order to merely survive. Nope, I believe she’s as big a con as her husband.

Ruth?  NO ONE buys your story.  You burned the BOOKS.  You lived the life.  Someone tell me again why the government isn’t going after this woman and her sons?