‘Detection’ takes on new meaning at Madoff-connected radiology center

A small part of the answer to the question about what happened to the $65 billion bilked from investors in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme may lie in a Hoboken, NJ, diagnostic imaging service.

Ruth Madoff, wife of the disgraced New York financier, purchased a 21.25% share in Hoboken Radiology five years ago, according to Bloomberg News. Madoff is one of nine investors who own the imaging service, said administrator Gary Berger in an interview with a reporter from the Newark Star-Ledger.

The service offers multislice CT, PET/CT, 3D and 4D ultrasound, mammography, x-ray, and bone densitometry, according to its website. It provides imaging for 125 to 250 people per week, Berger said.

Madoff's interest in the facility may become a target for federal government efforts to confiscate more than a dozen businesses and partnerships held by the Madoff family in order to return money to investors who were scammed.

Bernard Madoff remained in jail March 19 after pleading guilty to bilking investors of billions of dollars in what may be the largest investment fraud in U.S. history. Madoff faces up to 150 years in prison for the massive Ponzi scheme in which money secured from new investors was used to pay fictitious interest and dividends for longer established investors in his fund.

The scheme, hatched in the mid-1990s, fell apart when Wall Street stock values fell sharply in 2008. Sentencing is scheduled for June 16.

Ruth Madoff has not been accused of any crime, but, according to prosecutors, she holds interests in dozens of businesses, including restaurants, real estate funds associated with the New York Mets professional baseball franchise, and the imaging center in Hoboken.