Bye Bye Beauty: Ruth Madoff Banned From Upper East Side Hair Salon
Pierre Michel salon says wife of Bernie Madoff welcome no more.
April 13, 2009— -- Ruth Madoff, you are no longer welcome here. That's the message that's been sent to the wife of $50 billion Ponzi scheme master Bernie Madoff, whose business is being turned away by the posh Upper East Side hair and beauty salon where she has been a client for the past decade.
"The Pierre Michel salon's clients are among some of Manhattan's most elite," said a statement Monday from the luxury salon. "Unfortunately some of those clients were victims of the Madoff's and therefore Pierre Michel didn't feel comfortable having her in the salon."
In high-end beauty circles, the Pierre Michel salon is revered as one of the best in the business, and its website bills the salon as a continued "magnet for celebrities, socialites, fashionists and trend-setters." The salon boasts 8,000 square feet of state-of-the-art beauty space, complete with a VIP room. Haircuts start at $125 and increase from there, while highlights start at $200.
Ruth Madoff, who sports a well-manicured blonde bob, has been a client for approximately 10 years.
The salon's representative said it hadn't planned on announcing that Ruth Madoff had been shunned as a client until Page Six broke the news this morning. The salon would not comment on how Ruth Madoff learned that she was no longer welcome as a client.
Madoff Investigation Continues
Ruth Madoff, who most recently made news when she visited her husband April 6 at the Manhattan Correctional Center, had wanted to hold onto her Manhattan penthouse and $62 million while her husband serves his sentence for 11 felony counts, but prosecutors do not intend to allow her to continue her luxurious lifestyle. The government wants to seize the $7 million Upper East Side apartment, as well as the couples' homes in Palm Beach, the Hamptons, and France, according to court filings in district court in New York.
Click here to watch exclusive footage of Madoff inside his luxury Upper East Side apartment.
Though Madoff pled guilty and is behind bars while awaiting his sentencing in June, investigators continue to narrow their focus on his possible accomplices, which include his wife and their two sons. Ruth Madoff is her husband's closest confidante who also had an office at her husband's investment headquarters in Manhattan.
Madoff has insisted that he ran the scam on his own. His lawyer intends to appeal the decision to hold Madoff in jail while he await sentencing, which is scheduled for June 16.
Prosecutors Want Ruth Madoff's Jewels, Funds
Prosecutors also want to seize Ruth Madoff's jewelry collection, valued at over $2.6 million.
In addition to the homes and valuables, prosecutors will seek to seize the funds in two bank accounts in Ruth Madoff's name. One at Wachovia Bank contains over $17 million according to prosecutors; a second at COHMAD Securities Group containing an estimated $45 million.
Ruth Madoff allegedly withdrew the $10 million from Cohmad the day before she agreed to secure her husband's $10 million bail, according to court filings in Boston. Cohmad is under investigation by Massachusetts authorities for allegedly being a "feeder fund" that steered investors to Bernie Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme. She had withdrawn an additional $5 million just days before.
When Ruth posted her husband's bond, she told prosecutors she had her own money that she inherited from her now deceased parents. When Ruth Madoff's mother, Sara Alpern, died in 1996 she left more than $2 million in three trusts at Madoff & Co., according to her will obtained by ABC News. The money was left to her husband, Saul Alpern. Ruth and her sister, Joan, would inherit a little over $1 million dollars after Saul's death, according to the documents. Nothing close to the millions Ruth claims to have inherited.