The trustee handling the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s business believes his wife, Ruth, shouldn’t be allowed to live in luxury while investors who sunk money into his Ponzi scheme were impoverished.

Consequently, Irving Picard, the trustee handling the liquidation of Madoff’s business, is suing Ruth Madoff to get almost $45 million back to investors.

Madoff is in prison, serving a 150-year sentence for a Ponzi scheme that may have involved more than $65 billion in investor money. His wife cut a deal with the U.S. Attorney that allowed her to keep $2.5 million out of the property the Madoffs had amassed over the years, including multiple homes and yachts.

“While Madoff’s crimes have left many investors impoverished and some charities decimated, Mrs. Madoff remains a person of substantial means,” Picard said in his complaint filed in bankruptcy court Wednesday. “The inequity between Mrs. Madoff’s continuing financial advantages and the economic distress of Madoff’s customers compels the Trustee to bring this action.”

The trustee did not allege that Ruth Madoff knew about her husband’s crimes. Yet, he said regardless of whether she knew or not, she received tens of millions of dollars without providing the equivalent to her husband’s business.

Ruth Madoff’s attorney, Peter Chavkin said in a statement that the trustee’s action was “perplexing.”

“Ruth already forfeited to the United States Attorney’s Office almost all of the assets named in this complaint, assets that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has publicly committed to distributing to the victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme,” Chavkin said.