Tuesday, September 8th 2009, 9:32 AM
Stock swindler Bernie Madoff may have been stripped of his houses and boats, his shrimp forks and his freedom.
But earlier this summer, Palm Beach County, Fla., quietly cut him a check for $13,821.74.
And now Ruth Madoff is making a play for the dough.
The check was a property tax rebate - the result of a new assessment of the value of the Madoffs' five-bedroom, seven-bathroom Palm Beach house, the Palm Beach Post reported.
The waterfront mansion had been assessed at $9.4 million, but Ruth Madoff challenged the assessment last year.
The county recalculated, setting the house's value at $8.5 million and reducing her $151,000 tax bill by 9%.
The county had no choice but to cut the Madoffs a refund check in June.
Last week, Ruth Madoff sent the uncashed refund check back to the Palm Beach County Tax Collector's office with a letter asking that it be reissued in her name alone, the Post reported.
She could not have cashed the check without her husband's signature, which would be hard: Bernie Madoff, 70, has been sentenced to stay behind bars for the next 150 years.
Ruth Madoff, who claims to have known nothing of her husband's decades of greed and deception, made a deal with prosecutors to give up everything but $2.5 million of her fortune. The rest is supposed to go to Madoff's victims.
It was unclear if asking for the tax check broke the agreement.
Her lawyer told the paper she intended the money to go "where it is supposed to go."
Source
Post a Comment
0Comments