Washington - US prosecutors intend to seize millions of
dollars of homes, cars and other luxury items from disgraced
financier Bernard Madoff, who pleaded guilty last week to operating a
50-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
A filing in US court shows prosecutors intend to go after four
homes owned by Madoff and his wife, Ruth, including the property and
contents of a 7-million-dollar Manhattan luxury apartment, a 3.4-
million-dollar beachside home on Long Island, a 14-million-dollar
waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and a home in the south of
France.
Other assets subject to seizure include a yacht and three other
boats, four cars, a 39,000-dollar Steinway piano and 65,000 dollars
worth of silverware.
Ruth Madoff had argued that cash and other items in her name could
not be seized to pay the victims of the scandal and were not the
result of the fraud, but prosecutors also said they intend to seize
17 million dollars in cash and 45 million dollars in bonds held in
her name.
Bernard Madoff, 70, was led off in handcuffs to jail Thursday
after his guilty plea before the lower Manhattan federal court to all
11 criminal counts. He could be sentenced to 150 years in jail for
one of the largest financial swindles in history.
He is to be sentenced June 16 and his lawyers are seeking to have
him released in the meantime. As part of the request to release
Madoff, lawyers submitted documents that indicated Madoff's net worth
was 823 to 826 million dollars.
Madoff bilked thousands of investors around the world, including
individuals and charity groups, of their money - many of their entire
life savings. At least one investor and an investment manager have
committed suicide since December over the revelations.
In the scheme, Madoff offered his investors handsome returns by
continually collecting fresh funds from new clients instead of
investing the money in securities, as he had promised. His office
produced false financial statements for more than a decade which were
mailed to clients.
The 70-year-old investor had been under house arrest since January
at his luxurious Upper East Side Manhattan home on 10 million dollars
bail - a court decision that provoked outrage among his many victims.
The scandal has been a major embarrassment for government
regulators. An independent fraud investigator, Harry Markopolos,
testified before Congress last month that he had warned the SEC of
Madoff's shady operations some nine years ago.
USA
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