Disgraced financier and ponzi swindler Bernie Madoff has been hospitalized at Duke University for serious injuries consistent with an assault, ABC is reporting.

Madoff, 71, was treated for facial fractures, broken ribs and a collapsed lung on Tuesday. Officials at Butner federal prison refused to confirm the report, but Butner spokesperson Cathy Elsea admitted that Madoff had been hopsitalized within the prison. Elsea refused to elaborate on the move to the prison wing:

“The potential reasons for an inmate to transfer are numerous,” Elsea told ABC News, “and we do not release those specific reasons.”

Madoff’s scheme collapsed last year in early December, and his arrest came a day after he told his sons that his entire business was a “big lie.” He has been incarcerated since July at Butner, a prison described as “one of the crown jewels of the federal prison system” and as being reminiscent of a college campus. White collar criminals are often sent to the facility, but Madoff’s fellow inmates also include a Colombo crime family boss and the man behind the 1993 WTC bombing.

Ruth Madoff was escorted from her posh Manhattan penthouse today by federal marshals, the New York Daily News is reporting.

Mrs. Madoff, who has reverted to her maiden name Alpern in an unsuccessful bid to find an apartment, reportedly surrendered all the property inside. Five federal marshals took possession of the home just before noon today and are in the process of cataloguing its contents. Ruth has lived in the $7m Upper East Side Duplex for decades with her husband, Bernie Madoff, who is currently serving a sentence of 150 years for his infamous Ponzi scheme.

Ruth Madoff relinquished all claim to the $70m in funds that were in her name, and denied any knowledge of her husband’s schemes. Don’t feel too bad for her, in case you were going to- she was allowed to keep $2.5m in cash in the deal she cut with the Justice Department.

US Marshals seized ponzi master Bernard Madoff’s 1969 Rybovich Yacht and a smaller boat in Florida Wednesday as part of an ongoing effort to pay back some of the money lost by former Madoff investors.

The 55-foot 1969 Rybovich Yacht called “Bull” is worth $2.2 million, and was described by a Government spokesman as being “extremely well kept, extremely clean [and the] engine compartment was spotless. It looked like somebody took a bottle of 409 and scrubbed it every day.”

Court documents indicate that Madoff and his wife had up to $826 million in assets at the end of 2008, including the boat. Prosecutors are attempting to seize all of Madoff’s assets.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission this morning raided Texas based Stanford Financial Group over an alleged $8 billion fraud.

The SEC accuses founder and CEO of Stanford Financial Robert Allen Stanford, CFO James M. Davis, and Chief Investment Officer Laura Pendergest-Holt with misrepresenting the safety and liquidity of uninsured certificates of deposits (CDs).

Stanford Financial, and its subsidiaries sold $8 billion of CDs to investors by “promising improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates,” the SEC said in a statement.

Further, the SEC alleges that Stanford falsely claimed that the deposits were safe, that more than 20 analysts monitor the investments, and that yearly audits were being conducted.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor entered a temporary restraining order on the accused, froze the defendants assets, and appointed a receiver to manage those assets.

Other allegations include Stanford claiming to investors that the company had no exposure to Bernie Madoff scam, when the company did, and further that Stanford Capital Management (another Stanford subsidiary) inflated the performance of its $1.2 billion-asset Stanford Allocation Strategy mutual fund in promoting it to prospective investors.

The alleged fraud if proven would be one of the largest frauds by a money manager in US history.

Madoff Investors: The Full List

The names on the Madoff client list include such well-known people as actor John Malkovitch, talk show host Larry King, pitcher Sandy Koufax, New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, and Madoff’s own lawyer, Ira Sorkin.

It’s worth noting that the Madoff client list does include anyone who responded to ads related to the firm’s bankruptcy, so they may not all be actual victims.

You can download or view the entire list of Madoff investors here (PDF).