Prosecutors go after Madoff's luxury homes, cars, boats

Mar 16, 2009, 16:29 GMT

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.