Ponzi schemer Madoff's wife carrying out charity works in Florida

Washington, July 19 (ANI): The disgraced wife of jailed Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is depending on relatives for sustenance, and searching for redemption by volunteering for charity works in Florida.

The formerly monied Manhattan matron, Ruth Madoff has fled to south Florida, where she bunks with relatives and apparently does God's work, delivering meals to the homebound

According to The New York Post, the former billionaire's wife has been reduced to driving around in a 14-year-old clunker, with a parking placard in the back seat that reads, "homebound delivery volunteer driver."

She registered the 1996 'Infiniti' she bought in January for a "few thousand" to sister Joan Roman's Boca Raton address in a middle-class condo complex.

The report claims that she regularly visits her sister's home, but when she wants a taste of the high life she once enjoyed, 67-year-old Madoff mooches at brother-in-law Peter Madoff's 4.5 million pounds Palm Beach mansion.

"She doesn't own a home, friends and relatives have been kind enough to give her places to stay," the paper quoted her lawyer, Peter Chavkin, as saying.

Madoff, who now often uses her maiden name Alpern, has been spurned by numerous New York co-op boards and landlords, who refused to sell or rent to her after she was booted by federal authorities from her luxury Upper East Side condo.

Earlier, she had said that she knew nothing of her spouse's shady dealings and made a deal with the Government to give up all but 2.5 million pounds of her fortune, with the rest going to Madoff's victims.

Bernie Madoff was convicted in a 65 billion dollars scam and sentenced to 150 years in prison in June 2009. The Government had frozen his family assets, and many of his multimillion-dollar properties and luxury possessions were auctioned off.

"There's a cap on how much she can spend on herself, Ruth has to keep receipts for every personal expense, and submit monthly reports for any purchase over 100 pounds to a bankruptcy judge," the report said. (ANI)