http://insideedition.com/news.aspx?storyId=3090Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for the biggest financial swindle in U.S. history. His victims celebrated at a rally near the courthouse in New York City.
Maureen Ebel, a participant at the rally, lost over $5 million. Her life savings are now gone thanks to Madoff's multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.
She's been forced to clean houses just to get by. INSIDE EDITION spoke with Ebel and when asked about Madoff’s sentence she said, “I do not want him to see the light of day.”
In giving Madoff the maximum sentence, the judge called his fraud "staggering."
One person noticeably absent from the courtroom was Madoff's wife Ruth, who on Monday finally broke her silence, saying: "Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused. The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known all these years."
INSIDE EDITION tried to talk to Ruth Madoff after she visited her husband in jail earlier this month.
She'll be left with $2.5 million after a judge stripped the Madoffs of their vast billion-dollar personal fortune, including their $7 million Manhattan apartment, an $11 million estate in Palm Beach, and their yacht.
When asked if Ebel had any sympathy for Ruth Madoff, Ebel said she had “no sympathy, absolutely none.”
Ruth Madoff is now banned from many of the stores and restaurants that had once welcomed her business on New York's ritzy Upper East Side.
A photograph was taken of her in the midst of her new toned-down lifestyle – riding the subway. She used to travel everywhere by limousine.
Samantha Von Sperling is an image consultant in Manhattan who knows the New York social scene.
“She is the loneliest person on the planet, and rightly so,” says Von Sperling.
“If I were her hairdresser I wouldn't have that woman in my salon. The husbands of my other clients have lost millions.”
Ruth Madoff has been told she is no longer welcome at the Bella Blu Italian restaurant where she and her husband once were regular patrons.
She also no longer goes to the gym where she used to have a $1,200-a-month membership.
But this Madoff victim says that's nothing compared with losing everything: “I have absolutely no money. I'm very frightened for my old age,” said Ebel.
Mrs. Madoff has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Mr. Madoff says he ran the investment scheme alone.
Left with "only" $2.5 million? Awwwww, poor bitch. There's always Social Security.
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
