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Millionaire Widow Becomes Cleaner After Losing Fortune in Madoff's Alleged Ponzi Scheme
Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1/23/09 | Catherine Elsworth

Posted on 01/23/2009 9:43:42 AM PST by marshmallow

Maureen Ebel, 60, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, thought she had $7.3 million invested with the New York financier when he was arrested last month and charged with running a massive hedge fun scam, possibly the largest financial fraud in history.

But after Mr Madoff's alleged confession that the scheme was "all just one big lie", a revelation that shook the investment world, Mrs Ebel realised she had nothing.

She went from an annual income from her investments of 400,000 dollars to worrying about how to pay her next bill and picking up coins in the street.

In less than a week following Madoff's arrest, Mrs Ebel found a job caring for a 93-year-old woman, cleaning her home and ironing.

"This is my fate," the retired nurse, whose doctor husband died in 2000 aged 53, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I was married, had a fabulous marriage to a man I loved and worshipped, a physician. We travelled. We had a very fine life. And he's dead. He died, and every penny I had in the world has gone."

Mrs Ebel, one of hundreds if not thousands of investors who together lost tens of billions of dollars in the scheme, has raised some cash by selling off jewellery and a painting and returned thousands of dollars worth of items recently bought on credit cards.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: madoff; sobstory
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To: marshmallow

This whole story smells REAL BAD...like I care...? stupid says as stupid does...
“Made-Off” should be tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a rail...nobody has the guts to do it tho...
If a guy making 50,000 bucks a year gets bilked... they can usually pick themselves up and get it back...
Will this “rich chick” be homeless? She was a fool with “her” money...


21 posted on 01/23/2009 10:26:58 AM PST by rusureitflies? (OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD! There, I said it. Prove me wrong.)
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To: Salgak

you are absolutely right. BUT when they make a public spectacle by becoming a newscast about it, air their stupidity, and then begin lawyering up to get back that money from ME, it is no longer JUST private. There are ALOT of people who were defrauded by Madoff, only the ones who are looking for public sympathy are coming out with these sob stories of how ALL their money was invested and now they might have to gasp go back to work and give up all their luxuries, thinking the american public will bail them out. Not ME. I am not interested. You play with fire, you get burned, lesson, don’t play with fire. Enough already


22 posted on 01/23/2009 10:27:30 AM PST by wombtotomb (since its "above his paygrade", why can't we err on the side of caution about when life begins?)
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To: marshmallow

The biggest problem I had with the story was the complete idiocy of having 7 million in investments while making mortgage payments on two places. I just cannot fathom owing anyone anything if I had enough money not to. It’s utter foolishness not to have your primary residence paid off and all yours if you can, in my opinion.


23 posted on 01/23/2009 10:30:02 AM PST by SoDak (Molon Labe)
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To: darkwing104
Never put all your eggs in one basket.

"Put all your eggs in one basket and the WATCH THAT BASKET!" Mark Twain.

L

24 posted on 01/23/2009 10:30:48 AM PST by Lurker ("America is at that awkward stage. " Claire Wolfe, call your office.)
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To: Frantzie

She probably let her certification lapse and it’s probably hard to get reinstated these days, with the technology changes. But I DO admire her for doing what hundreds of other Americans don’t do—she got herself a job, even one that many others would consider menial and demeaning.


25 posted on 01/23/2009 10:32:13 AM PST by JoyjoyfromNJ (Psalm 121)
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To: SueRae

I feel bad for her too. I’m not comfortable with anyone who feels that Madoff’s victims deserved to lose their money even though you can argue they should have known better.

It looks to me like they allowed Madoff to have custody of their money. This is insane. If you have a money manager he should never have actual custody of your funds. The money and securities should be with a custodian (like one of the big brokerage houses)and in an acct with your name on it. The custodian, not the advisor, sends you a monthly statement of activity.

This is the most fundamental piece of info that anyone who hires a money manager is supposed to know. I can’t believe the institutions who violated it.


26 posted on 01/23/2009 10:34:57 AM PST by freespirited (Help save humanity. Find a cure for the RINOvirus.)
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To: JoyjoyfromNJ
She probably let her certification lapse and it’s probably hard to get reinstated these days

Exactly. I haven't worked in patient care for over 10 years now but I keep my registration active "just in case".

27 posted on 01/23/2009 10:35:48 AM PST by mollynme (cogito, ergo freepum)
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To: marshmallow
Millionaire Widow Becomes Cleaner After Losing Fortune in Madoff's Alleged Ponzi Scheme

Now that's what I call taking a bath.

28 posted on 01/23/2009 10:37:45 AM PST by Dr.Deth
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To: JoyjoyfromNJ

I read in another article that her certificate had lapsed and she’s working on getting recertified. And, she’s 60, not 53.

Her uncle turned her onto Madoff, who sent her monthly statements about her investments. She thought she was invested in Johnson and Johnson, Coke and other blue chips.

My bet is that the 4 million initial investment she made was probably from her husband’s estate (life insurance, sale of practice, etc). It doesn’t sound like she was living really high on the hog. A condo her husband bought in FL and her house with a payment. She’s just a widow who took really bad investment advice from her uncle.


29 posted on 01/23/2009 10:41:27 AM PST by keepitreal (Obama brings change: an international crisis (terrorism) within 6 months)
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To: marshmallow

Reading this thread I see that there are sooo many hear at FR who are grappling with envy.


30 posted on 01/23/2009 10:45:01 AM PST by MarineBrat (The New York Times is a Communist Kamikaze.)
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To: marshmallow

My ex-mother-in-law (was then the current) inherited well over a million dollars when her husband (suicide and he definitely did it) and mother died (emphysema) in the same year. She was off her rocker mentally at that point and had her mother’s financial advisor handle all of her money. We had long been distrustful of this woman, but she convinced MIL to move out of state where she had moved just months after her mother died, despite our warnings. Between bad investments, suspected embezzlement, and bad decisions on spending (including buying a house where she is now upside down) on MILs part, she has not a penny left of that money, and in-fact owes the IRS because the advisor improperly moved funds around. She will be 59 this year, and it’s sad, but it’s not newsworthy (although we suspect that advisor has mismanaged a lot of money- we have no proof.)


31 posted on 01/23/2009 10:53:33 AM PST by conservative cat ("So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause.")
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To: marshmallow

Wow. From all the “class warfare, eat-the-rich” replies I’d think I was on democraticunderground.

Lady and her husband had good jobs, paid a lot of taxes and made investments based on a personal recommendation from someone she trusted. Turns out she isn’t as smart about personal finance as all the posters here so the spite-fest begins.

So I can assume everyone here is a subject matter expert in every aspect of their lives?


32 posted on 01/23/2009 10:54:16 AM PST by ibbryn (this tag intentionally left blank)
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To: GraniteStateConservative

It was her money and it was stolen from her. Again, it was her money to do with as she wished and it was stolen from her.

The granite state must grow them different, because I thought conservatives were about respecting private property and not envying others for what they have.

I’ll never have 7 million dollars myself but I can certainly sympathize with someone near retirement age having their entire nest egg stolen from them.

Maybe, her government should have taken all of her money and spent it for her? Yeah, that would be better/sarc. Maybe you should have taken it from her and spent it as you thought best. A thief is a thief is a thief.

Can you tell that I’m peeved?


33 posted on 01/23/2009 10:56:28 AM PST by dangerdoc (dangerdoc (not actually dangerous any more))
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To: GraniteStateConservative
I can’t muster any sympathy for the rich...

Shove off then. They could use a bit of your envy politics at DU.

34 posted on 01/23/2009 11:00:30 AM PST by TankerKC (Yes we can? I already could.)
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To: marshmallow

...so we’re going to what? Bail her out? Why are they bothering to publish this?


35 posted on 01/23/2009 11:03:26 AM PST by Tzimisce (http://groups.myspace.com/nailthemessiah)
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To: GraniteStateConservative

How can you call yourself a conservative when you feel it is your prerogative to decide how others should spend their money?


36 posted on 01/23/2009 11:05:45 AM PST by MediaMole
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To: marshmallow

sad. but eggs & baskets come to mind.


37 posted on 01/23/2009 11:08:03 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out
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To: GraniteStateConservative
it’s a shame she didn’t spend that wealth she had before she lost it to help those less fortunate.

The article says she spent $400,000 each year. I'd wager the majority of that DID, in fact, go to people less fortuante than she was.

Quit yer bitchin, we live in a capitalist society, where wealth is still spread.

38 posted on 01/23/2009 11:11:49 AM PST by Balding_Eagle (If America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
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To: marshmallow

“In less than a week following Madoff’s arrest, Mrs Ebel found a job”

This tells alot about this woman’s character. She got knocked down but she got back up. She is NOT on welfare or unemployment.
She and her husband worked hard , paid taxes and saved for retirement. She made a bad decision by putting all her investments with one company. However, it sounds like she is adjusting to reality. She will be fine.
However, the fact that Madoff is not in jail pisses me off. I can not imagine how she must feel about it. Who is Madoff paying off to keep himself out of jail.


39 posted on 01/23/2009 11:14:13 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: marshmallow

You had 400k a year coming in, and you didn’t put anything away, other than what was with madoff? I know the guys a crook and I feel for this woman and others taken by this guy, but come on... you had 400k a year coming in above and beyond the money that was in the fund and you did nothing with it but spend it or leave it in that one fund?

Never EVER put all your eggs in one basket, EVER.


40 posted on 01/23/2009 11:20:19 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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