Bernard Madoff jailed, so what now for Ruth?

Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street fraudster, swapped his Manhattan penthouse for a prison cell on Thursday night after pleading guilty to masterminding the biggest investment scam in US financial history.

In a New York courtroom packed with embittered victims who lost millions of dollars in Madoff's $65bn Ponzi scheme, the 70-year-old financier confessed to 11 criminal charges of operating a vast, corrupt business empire dating back to the early 1990s and, while he said he was "deeply sorry and ashamed" for his actions, few were in a forgiving mood.

A plea for bail pending his sentencing in June was emphatically denied, and US marshals handcuffed and led him away to a federal prison facing a possible 150-year jail term.The 90 minute hearing ends three months of house arrest for the once-respected financier, whose get-rich-quick schemes attracted Hollywood stars Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, the author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and scores of charities, hedge funds and pension funds.

But the saga is only just beginning. Because of his guilty plea, Madoff does not need to co-operate with any inquiry, and he has yet to account for where the stolen money is; his fund was said to contain nearly $65bn, but investigators have so far found only $1bn. Now, Federal investigators are opening new lines of inquiry, looking into allegations that Bernie's wife, Ruth Madoff, and other family members helped hide some of the money.

To counter this, Ruth, believed to have received at least $70 million in property and assets from her husband, has hired her own attorney. The New York Daily News reported that investigators were zeroing in on a pair of his wife's curiously timed wire transfers totaling $15.5 million just before he turned himself in.

"She's even more of a repulsive sociopath than Bernie," said Madoff victim and bestselling author Alexandra Penney in her Bag Lady column for the Daily Beast. And attorney Jerry Reisman, who represents 14 victims who lost a combined $150 million, told the Daily News: "This is stolen money, the fruits of the crime - and it must be returned. Why should she continue to live a life of luxury?

Lawyers acting for Madoff's sons, Mark and Andrew, who held trading positions at Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities, insist they "had no knowledge whatsoever of the fraud". Because the two were responsible for blowing the whistle on their father after he told them his fund was "All just one big lie", they have been seen as the good guys, but there are many who think the affair is not as clear cut as it seems. ·