Woman Returns $7bn

[Justices]

Sometimes people surprise you. It would be very easy to speculate as to her motives but $7bn is a hell of a lot of cash to hand over. Perhaps it was unnecessary to her in later life, she's had set aside enough to keep her in Werthers Originals and decided to do something noble? Perhaps she didn't want to be caught up in any legal action. Either way, well done old lady.

I suspect a good few lawyers in the Madoff fiasco will be ordering the extra-fancy steak tonight after the hearing the news!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12023902

[flyingjase]

Good on her - just goes to show that there are some decent people left on this planet

I'm sure she's not leaving herself destitute but $7bn is an immmense amount of money which hopefully will benefit people that have greater need (that last statement is probably quite niave)

[singlecoil]

Actually, "promised to return" is not the same as "returns".

[DonkeyApple]

The only shame in this rather wonderful story is just how much of that money is going to get hoovered up in fees before it gets back to the original investors.

It may have made more sense for her to set up a charitable trust specifically to help the most financially damaged Madof clients.

[davepoth]

AIUI she's VERY well off, which is why her husband had so much money to "invest" with Madoff. If this does work out nicely and the "investors" get back a third of what they put in she's probably saved a lot of people's Christmasses.