The New York Law Journal reported today that in a letter Ira Lee Sorkin wrote to U.S. District Court Judges Denny Chin and Louis Stanton, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland, Bernie Madoff's lead attorney said that he had spoken to Ruth Madoff's lawyer Peter Chavkin and , "we agree that Mrs. Madoff owns certain assets...free and clear of any wrongdoing by Mr. Madoff, or to which she had a legitimate untainted property interest."
We asked the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York if he agreed with Sorkin's claim concerning Ruth Madoff's assets. The U.S. Attorney refused to comment on this question as well as to the question we posed that if Mrs. Madoff does not own "certain assets" why then has the government not seized the Madoff's Manhattan apartment.
The U.S. Attorney notwithstanding, are there any victims of the Bernard Madoff's criminal enterprise who could possibly believe that the assets owned by Ruth Madoff were accumulated with funds not associated with the Ponzi scheme?