Bernie Madoff's Wife Withdrew 15 Million in Days Before Arrest

It's unclear at this point the level of knowledge that his wife had into his affairs, or whether or not she was instructed by Bernie Madoff to make certain transactions on his behalf. What is known is that Ruth Madoff withdrew $15 Million in two separate transactions in the days leading up to her husband's arrest on charges of running the largest fraud and ponzi scheme in U.S. history. She withdrew $5.5 Million on November 25th and another $10 Million on December 10.

Madoff was arrested on December 11, only one day after the last withdraw made by his wife. The details of the Madoff ponzi scheme are still being sorted out by investigators, but it's clear that Madoff had orchestrated a highly complex system of investor fraud and had several companies through which he charged brokerage fees for services he never provided.

As high profile investors and Wall Street titans are revealed to have been associated with Madoff, we continue to see just how weak and vulnerable our financial system can be. Even though Madoff was operating - it appear - largely on his own, he controlled an enormous amount of assets on behalf of his clients. This same level of fraud and deception could easily occur within the larger financial institutions that control Wall Street - and the SEC would likely never know or be powerful enough to stop it. All pretty scary in light of the fact that the citizens of the United States are now about to pump another trillion dollars or so into a system that is clearly broken.