Ruth Madoff, cookbook author by profession, is lawyering up.
You would, too. She is one of a number of Madoff family members being looked at by investigators. Looked at in the "your assets may be at risk" sense of the phrase.
Ruth should also gear up for the largest book sale in the universe: sized like the Madoff Ponzi Scheme.
Reports indicate that on Friday, new court documents reveal that she and her prisoner-partner had
a combined net worth of more than $823 million at the end of last year. EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREE MILLION. It is not such a crazy over the top number when you consider that there is a $7 million yacht thrown in there and four properties collectively worth about $22
million. Its not like there was just EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREE MILLION in $1 bills sitting in her pocket. But still. She is properly worried.
Just how many cookbooks would Ruth have to sell to build her asset base back up if her wealth was distributed to Madoff victims? Amazon shows her cookbook is retailing for $36.99. And there are three authors, so profits are divied. Even assuming the publisher, editor and others get nothing from each book - a silly assumption - my rough math shows that if Ruth got 1/3 of the retail price of each book sold, she would need to sell more than 68 million books to regain her status quo.
Previously, a court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernie's firm reported that about $1 billion in assets had been recovered from the business.
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