Okay, this is some street level, corner boy, ambitious drug king pin type of s***. I rest my case on the perceived difference between street criminals and corporate criminals.
Bernard Madoff is seeking to keep a $7 million Manhattan penthouse and an additional $62 million in assets, saying they are unrelated to the fraud that authorities say cost victims more than $50 billion. In court papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Madoff and his lawyer claim the apartment, $45 million in municipal bonds and $17 million more in a separate account all belong to Madoff's wife, Ruth.
In order to "outsmart" possible prosecutors, workers in the underground pharmaceutical trade, often attempt to hold on to assets by putting their materials under the legal ownership of close family members. That way they can enjoy the results of ill gotten gains but maintain possession of them during legal seizures. Of course this is done with the full knowledge that their "activities" are subject to criminal prosecution and all accrued possessions as well subject to seizure.
The bonds in an account held by Ruth Madoff at COHMAD Securities Corp. and about $17 million held by her in a Wachovia Bank account "are unrelated to the alleged Madoff fraud and only Ruth Madoff has a beneficial interest in these assets," Bernard Madoff and lawyer Ira Sorkin said, according to the papers.
Of course, Ruth's money is her money and Bernie's money is his money and never the twain shall meet. And certainly the $7,000,000 apartment only benefits Ruth because Bernie sleeps on the fire escape in the summer and the furnace room of the apartment building in the winter. My point being, Bernie socked these assets away in his wife's name because he knew he was f*****g people over, illegally. He needs to go to real jail, as Al Franken says, "the type of jail that when he gets out and is asked about it, he says, 'I don't want to talk about it'".