Federal authorities take two boats
Bernie Madoff’s antique yacht, a 1969 Rybovich, and a smaller motorboat were seized by federal authorities today as Madoff continued his stay in jail.
The 55-foot 1969 Rybovich is valued at $2.2 million. This marks just the beginning of the authorities’ attempts to recoup assets to pay back Madoff’s victims.
The scheme
Madoff pleaded guilty March 12 to 11 felonies, including securities fraud. The financier led a Ponzi scheme that swindled his “clients” out of billions. He gave people who thought they were investors cash advances that he obtained from other supposed investors, but it was all a ploy to get more money out of them.
Madoff has been ordered to stay in jail, so far, until his sentencing in June. He faces up to 150 years in jail.
The stuff
Prosecutors have begun the process of seizing as much of Madoff’s personal fortune as they can. Court documents say Madoff and his wife had about $826 million in assets as of the end of 2008. Madoff has an $11 million, five-bedroom mansion in Palm Beach Island, Florida.
The Madoffs also own a $7 million Manhattan penthouse bought in 1984, a $1 million home in Cap d’ Antibe, France and a $3 million luxury home on New York’s Long Island. If the government has its way, the Madoffs will forfeit all of these, plus $10 million in furnishings for all the homes and luxury cars.
With family like this…
Madoff
Already about 6,700 people have filed claims for a share of Madoff assets that are recovered. Thousands more are still expected to come forward. Some of Madoff’s victims lost more than $1 million. New York Business.com says Madoff’s scam could be the biggest ever conducted on Wall Street.
Authorities are also trying to collect millions of dollars from Madoff’s relatives in an attempt to repay people who Madoff cheated out of money.
More charges filed
Also today, Massachusetts securities regulators charged Fairfield Greenwich Group with fraud for activities associated with Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The group is accused of being a “feeder fund” for Madoff’s operations and misrepresenting its knowledge about Madoff’s dealings. Check out the full story here.
He’s going to have to make a lot of license plates to make up for this. I hope the people that were victims of his crimes can make up for some of their losses by selling off all his assets.
Oh Madoff… don’t tell me you didn’t see this one coming. As the old saying goes, “What comes around comes around. What goes up must come down.”
You are absolutely brilliant in many brainless ways.
That photo is not of a 1969 Rybovich – in fact it’s not a Rybovich at all. Somebody got the wrong boat…