When Ira Lee Sorkin tried to sneak in the bit about Bernie Madoff’s wife having a few assets of her own, some eyebrows were raised.  Actually, most eyebrows were raised, together with some fists.  It was an audacious move.  You gotta love Sorkin’s chutzpah.

According to reports, Ruth Madoff has her own assets that amount to about $70 million, including the prison/apartment where Bernie sits and waits.  It’s nice of Ruth to let him use it, considering that he’s absolutely destroyed any chance of her getting invited to any decent parties in the near future.

But after reading a half dozen reports of Ruth’s small wealth (in comparison to Bernie’s vast one), one question keeps bugging me.  How did she manage to amass such a nest egg? 

I know I’ve tried, and it hasn’t happened for me.  I showed Mrs. SJ the story and told her what a disappointment she’s been as a wife.  That Ruth Madoff must be one heckuva gal, since the only thing I can find about her was that she did some bookkeeping for Bernie’s business.

Now if Ruth was teaching people how to make some quick cash, I wonder what she would tell them.  Marry Bernie? 

Now it’s absolutely possible that Ruth has assets.  And it’s certainly possible that Bernie accumulated assets untainted by this case, though those assets might be subject to a couple of potential claims floating around out there.  But if Ira Sorkin is thinking that he’s just going to slip this past Judge Stanton, and nobody is going to notice, then he doesn’t know Judge Stanton.  Or the thousands of people who want Bernie’s head on a platter.

Ruth, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.