Secretary of State William Galvin said Ruth Madoff, 67, withdrew US$5.5 million on Nov 25 and US$10 million on Dec 10 from Cohmad Securities, a New York firm co-owned by her husband.

The secretary cited wire transfer records produced by Cohmad as proof of the withdrawals. It was unclear whether they were made with knowledge of the scheme's impending collapse.

'We're not accusing her of anything wrong,' Galvin spokesman Brian McNiff said. 'It's just one of the things that came out in the response, such as it was, from Cohmad' to a subpoena from Massachusetts officials. 'Now, what someone in New York or the feds may think of it, may be entirely different.'

In New York, meanwhile, the government and lawyers for Madoff agreed to a 30-day delay in the Wednesday deadline for obtaining a grand jury indictment against the money manager. The new deadline is Mar 13.

As he had during a similar extension a month ago, Assistant US Attorney Marc Litt wrote that the government requested the extension 'for the purpose of allowing time to conduct additional discussions regarding a possible disposition of this case.' It has been widely anticipated the case will be resolved before trial through an agreement between the government and Madoff's lawyers.

Since Madoff's arrest Dec 11, investigators have been assessing the financial damage inflicted on thousands of people who lost money investing with him. The victims identified so far have included ordinary people and Hollywood celebrities, along with large hedge funds, international banks and charities in the US, Europe and Asia.

Madoff was arrested after investigators said he confessed to his sons that he had swindled investors of a mammoth pyramid scheme in which early investors are paid with money raised from new investors. The scheme collapses when there is no money to repay the last investors.

Madoff, a 70-year-old former Nasdaq stock market chairman, remains confined to his Manhattan penthouse under house arrest.

Mr Galvin made his disclosure in a complaint asking Massachusetts state regulators to stop Cohmad - a brokerage firm apparently named by merging the last names of co-founders Maurice Cohn and Madoff - from doing business in Massachusetts because it failed to provide information to Galvin about its relationship with Madoff.

Mr Galvin said Cohmad officials have ignored subpoenas or given incomplete responses as part of the state's probe of how Massachusetts investors lost money in the Madoff scheme.

An associate of Madoff, Robert Jaffe, appeared last week before officers of the Massachusetts Security Division, but the complaint says he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Mr Galvin has described Mr Jaffe as a registered agent and principal of Cohmad, which is in the same New York City building as Madoff's firm. Mr Jaffe's lawyers have said he had no knowledge of Madoff's actions and was himself a victim who lost millions of dollars.

Mr Galvin said the discovery of Ruth Madoff's withdrawals raises questions about whether there was a broader conspiracy behind Bernard Madoff's actions. Madoff has projected himself as someone who acted alone.

'It would seem as if some of the facts that we've discovered would raise, at least, some questions on that. I certainly am not questioning the thoroughness of my colleagues in other jurisdictions, but I think our findings, which we're sharing with them, would hopefully spur them on to be very thorough in looking over all the parties involved here and not to accept facile explanations about how this happened,' Mr Galvin added.

He also cited a US$526,000 Cohmad payment to a woman he said was associated with Madoff - but not licensed in Massachusetts or ever a Cohmad employee - as more potential evidence of a conspiracy. 'It suggests to us that this is one big entity,' Mr Galvin said. --AP