US businessman Bernard Madoff is seeking to keep a US$7 million Manhattan penthouse and an additional US$62 million in assets, saying they are unrelated to the fraud that authorities say cost victims more than US$50 billion.
Meanwhile, the government of Antigua and Barbuda is seeking to take control of land owned by Texas billionaire Allen Stanford.
In court papers filed on Monday in the US District Court in Manhattan, Madoff and his lawyer said the apartment, US$45 million in municipal bonds and US$17 million in a separate account belonged to his wife Ruth.
The bonds in an account held by Ruth Madoff at COHMAD Securities and about US$17 million held by her in a Wachovia Bank account “are unrelated to the alleged Madoff fraud and only Ruth Madoff has a beneficial interest in these assets,” the papers quoted Bernard Madoff and lawyer Ira Sorkin as saying.
Sorkin declined to comment.
A court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff’s assets has said the apartment and other property used to secure bail was off limits for now. But if there’s a conviction, those assets and possibly property of Madoff “insiders” could be seized to help pay claims by alleged victims.
The information was contained in an order of consent asking a judge to grant the federal government authority to seek forfeiture of assets involved in any fraud. It was filed in a case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Madoff.
Trustee Irving Picard has said that nearly US$950 million in cash and securities had been recovered for investors so far.
Madoff, a 70-year-old former NASDAQ chairman, has been confined to the Manhattan apartment under house arrest since early December.
He was arrested and charged with securities fraud after authorities said in court papers that he confessed to his sons that he had carried out a giant Ponzi scheme for years, using new money from investors to pay off early investors while bogus statements claimed consistent investment gains.
Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda’s government will move to take control of an offshore island that it has discovered is owned by Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, accused of an US$8 billion securities fraud, a government official said on Monday.
Guiana Island, which Stanford controlled through a British Virgin Islands company whose shares he acquired, constitutes an additional 600 hectares held by the US financier in the tiny Caribbean state at the heart of his business empire.
Antigua and Barbuda’s government obtained parliament’s approval last week to seize 100 hectares of Stanford-owned land following the Feb. 17 announcement by the SEC of fraud charges against the Texan.
“We have just discovered further assets of Stanford — some 1,500 acres [600 hectares],” said the government official, who asked not to be named. “Our main aim is to make sure that the lands are returned to Antigua.”
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