Where Is Bernie Madoff's Wife Now? Ruth Madoff Lived In Rental After Husband's Downfall

Ruth Madoff, wife of the late Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff, is living in a $3.8 million, four-bedroom waterfront mansion in Connecticut with a former daughter-in-law’s family, according to a report.

The ritzy residence, located on Lucas Point, was built in 2005. It features roughly 4,000 feet of living space, a double-height entry gallery, two fireplaces and a private dock, according to Zillow.

The home is owned by 56-year-old Susan Elkin, the first wife of Ruth and Bernie’s eldest son, Mark, who hung himself in 2010 following the revelation of the Ponzi scheme.

“Bernie, now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit. F–-k you,” Mark, then 48, wrote to his father before hanging himself on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest.

Ruth Madoff was never charged in her husband's Ponzi scheme, and even though she distanced herself from him, she never divorced him. Mark and the Madoff's other son, Andrew, also were never never charged, yet a court-appointed trustee claimed they received millions of dollars in unlawful proceeds from the Ponzi scheme. Andrew died in 2014 after fighting a lengthy battle with mantle cell lymphoma.

Public records show that Ruth, 79, moved into the Lucas Point mansion in September 2020. She had previously rented a 989-square-foot townhouse in Old Greenwich.

News of her current residence came to light following the death of her husband at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. Madoff, who was 82, had been suffering from chronic kidney failure, and prison chiefs had denied his request last year to return home to die. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not reveal the actual cause of Madoff's death.

Madoff had been given a 150-year prison sentence with restitution of $170 billion in 2009 for his pyramid-style scheme, which reportedly defrauded close to 37,000 people in approximately 135 countries over a span of 40 years. Some of the high-profile people who were ripped off included director Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon, former New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Madoff's scheme was estimated to be worth nearly $65 billion. It's considered to be the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

Madoff was caught in 2008 amid the financial market decline. The following year in March, he pleaded guilty to 11 federal charges -- including theft, perjury and fraud -- and confessed to running his Ponzi scheme.

The schemer had previously confessed to his sons that his investment advisory work was bogus. They turned him in to authorities soon after. The sons claimed they didn't no about the Ponzi scheme, but Mark reportedly realized that he couldn't ultimately distance himself from his father's crimes.

"Because of how long this lasted, it was completely devastating to so many victims," Matthew L. Schwartz, the former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who led the investigation that brought Madoff to justice, said.

"There were so many heartbreaking stories of people who thought they had material savings, who had thought they put everything into their nest egg and that they would be able to retire, and instead they ended up effectively homeless,” he added.