Mar 20, 2009 8:40 pm US/Eastern
As New Madoff Details Emerge, So Does The Mrs.
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Front entrance of building with penthouse apartment owned by Ruth Madoff in Manhattan's Upper East Side.
AP
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Financier Bernard Madoff arrives at Manhattan Federal court on March 12, 2009, in New York City.
Stephen Chernin/Getty Images
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Bernie Madoff will await his sentencing in a cell like this one at the Metropolitan Correction Center in lower Manhattan.
CBS
Bernard Madoff won't be moving back on up to the East Side, even for just a short visit to his $7 million penthouse apartment. A federal appeals court Friday ruled the disgraced financier will remain in prison until he's sentenced in June.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its written ruling a day after hearing arguments from the government and a lawyer for the 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman.
And while his sentencing date nears, new information about his actual operation continues to be revealed. Madoff, a man who pioneered the use of computers for stock trading, reportedly used antiquated gear in his office.
"[The equipment was] 15-20 years old. The reason for this is that modern computers keep records. You can archive anything. Anything can be saved," says Lucinda Franks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and CBS Early Show contributor. "Madoff didn't want any records retained."
In court, Madoff admitted his investment advisory business was fraudulent, but claimed his trading and market-making businesses were legitimate and profitable. But Franks' source told her that wasn't true.
"This legitimate side of the business was not making money, it was sometimes losing money," says Franks.
Franks' source also discovered the shaky finances when he cracked a computer file restricted to the Madoff family, a file that apparently indicates the whole family knew of the Ponzi scheme.
Ruth Madoff has not been charged in the scheme, but a federal probe continues.
Outside her apartment building at 64th Street and Lex, news people with Nikons and Canons sit daily awaiting a million dollar shot. Thursday night, the wait paid off.
"Oh, I got Ruth Madoff. This is nice," gloats Joe Marino, a freelance photographer for the Daily News, who last night, along with another photographer, caught Mrs. Madoff leaving her apartment house at 8 p.m.
"She looked tired. She looked like someone confined and under a lot of stress. She had a lot going on," Marino says of his of photographs.
The only other recent shot of her was last week, while in her apartment. Last night, Madoff, tailed by a bodyguard, headed east on 64th. Her destination: The Food Emporium on Third Avenue, where she went downstairs, got a cart, began walking the aisles, but again, spotted the two cameras.
"She said, 'Okay, this is crazy, I'm getting out of here.' (I'm paraphrasing)," Marino says, adding she then pushed the cart away. "She did, gave the cart a good jolt into the shelves and left up the escalator."
Madoff walked home, without saying word. During the outing, Marino fired-off 153 photos. Just two were printed in the paper.
Several people have wondered why doesn't she have her groceries delivered? Perhaps because she's under a self-imposed solitary confinement, and just had to get out of the house, or perhaps it's to feel some sort of normalcy in her otherwise far-from-normal new life.
We may never know, but at least we'll have the pictures to help us wonder.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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