Ronnie Sue and Dominic Ambrosino, formerly of Delray Beach, have been living in a motor home park in Arizona since their life savings were wiped out in the Bernard Madoff scam

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Ronnie Sue Ambrosino is headed back to Delray Beach this week for the first time since she and her husband were stranded in Arizona after learning they had lost their life savings in the Bernard Madoff scam.

Ambrosino, 56, isn't coming back to check out her former home. Or to go to the beach.

Using the unexpected generosity of a French news organization that is flying her to town for an interview, Ambrosino is bringing other Madoff victims together to talk about their plight and their fight for what to many is their survival.

"Emotions are so high, and the pain is so great," she said. "My main thing is that everyone can come together and talk."

It's been her mission since that December day when she got a call telling her that Madoff, her longtime trusted investment adviser, had been arrested after admitting that he had been operating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

"The air became thick. The birds stopped singing. The world just stopped," Ambrosino said of the realization that her retirement nest egg - $1.66 million - was gone.

For three days, she and her husband, Dominic, didn't speak. They just held each other.

But unlike other Madoff victims who declined to tell even close friends that they had been bilked, she and her husband decided they could not keep their loss secret.

"We have to tell everyone. We can't hide it," Ambrosino said. "We weren't defined by our money, and we can't be defined by not having it."

She did not stop with close family and friends. The retired computer programming analyst reached out to others who had been fooled and swindled by the investment guru. Soon she began overseeing the Web site bernardmadoff victims.org.

Today, she said, there are more than 350 people in her network. They include the fabulously wealthy and people like her who lived modestly but invested diligently any spare cash to fuel early retirement dreams.

As months have passed, she said, the issues facing Madoff victims have become more complex.

Once confident that the government would rush to their rescue, they are learning that is not the case.

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff's assets has said that investors are entitled to the amount they put in minus any money they took out. For some, that could mean they would owe money. For others, it means they would get a fraction of what they were told - albeit falsely - their investments were worth.

Further, while trustee Irving Picard is working to recoup millions from Madoff and others who he claims were involved in the scam, until he does, the most any investor can get is $500,000, the cap paid by the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

The cap was last raised in 1978. If adjusted for inflation, it would be about $1.6 million today.

Congress could raise the cap. Further, Ambrosino said, it could force Picard to pay investors according to what their last statements reflect.

U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler and Ron Klein, both Boca Raton Democrats, wrote to the head of the investment protection agency, appealing to him to base the compensation on final statements.

SIPC President Stephen Harbeck replied that using the fictitious statements "allows the thief ... Mr. Madoff ... to determine who receives a larger proportion of the assets collected by the trustee."

As part of the Ponzi scheme, Madoff awarded higher returns to some clients than others.

Klein said he's willing to take a look at raising the cap. But, he said, since he and Wexler sent the letter in May, a lawsuit has been filed over whether Picard's formula is legally sound.

"It's not our role to intervene in a lawsuit," Klein said.

The lawsuit filed this month seeks class-action status for an estimated 3,000 people who would be harmed by Picard's system. It outlines the desperate lives of seven victims. Among them: a 73-year-old widow who was forced to take a part-time job at Macy's when she learned that two accounts valued at a total of $1.3 million had been wiped out; an elderly couple responsible for a disabled daughter who sought food stamps after an $830,753 fund that benefited them and other family members disappeared; and an elderly couple forced to move in with a daughter when their $4.2 million account was swept away.

Because most had withdrawn money to pay for living expenses, they are likely to receive nothing or very little under Picard's formula, according to the lawsuit. None has received a determination letter from the trustee.

Another lawsuit was filed Tuesday. While it makes similar allegations, it also accuses Picard of withholding payments to reduce losses for brokerage houses that fund SIPC's relief program.

Ambrosino said she believes she is eligible for at least the full $500,000. But the net equity issue is potentially catastrophic for hundreds of Madoff victims, she said.

Further, the delay in getting the money is hurting her and thousands of others. As of June 8, the trustee had approved 317 claims. About 8,800 claims have been filed.

Instead of combing through records, investigators should go after those who helped Madoff perpetuate the fraud, Ambrosino said.

She and her husband, a retired corrections officer, are living outside Phoenix in the recreational vehicle they bought to tour the country after they sold their home in New York.

Friends are allowing them to park the home in their spaces while they are away. While such kindness has been heartening, at some point, Ambrosino said, they have to move on with their lives.

But, she said, they need their money.

"The bigger atrocity here - and it's pathetically sad - is that fact that government isn't standing behind us and living up to its obligations," she said.

Ambrosino expects 15 to 20 victims will attend the private meeting this week. She can be contacted at info@bernardmadoffvictims.org.