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For sale: the world of billionaire fraudster Bernard Madoff
Ed Harris09.09.09
It is where Bernard Madoff broke down and confessed to his massive fraud, frantically wrote cheques for millions of dollars as the scheme unravelled, and appeared in a dressing gown to greet the FBI agents who arrested him.
Now the billionaire fraudster's Manhattan penthouse is expected to attract a flood of bids when it goes up for sale this week.
The US Marshals Service is disposing of the 4,000sqft flat. Authorities will also sell the disgraced financier's 8,700sqft estate in Palm Beach, Florida, a yacht and two smaller boats docked in Fort Lauderdale.
They hope to raise tens of millions of dollars to reimburse his victims.
Madoff estimated his Manhattan apartment was worth $7million, the Palm Beach home $11million and the boat $2.2million in a federal declaration late last year.
The financier, 71, was sentenced in June to 150 years in prison for masterminding a multibillion-dollar "Ponzi" scheme that spanned decades.
The Palm Beach house has five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a huge kitchen filled with antiques, including century-old golf clubs and an 1895 set of Shakespeare's complete works.
Madoff's 55-foot yacht, named Bull, has been completely refitted and features a lift from the fishing deck to the flybridge.
Bill O'Dell, operations manager for National Maritime Services, which is handling the auction for National Liquidators, said: "This boat is designed to go catch fish. This is a man's boat."
The Manhattan home is lavishly decorated with Chinese antiques, including ornate cabinets and vases.
The office has a leather couch, paintings of boats and a sculpture of a bull - a favourite Madoff motif - on a coffee table.
There is also the desk where authorities said they found 100 cheques worth $173million that Madoff was ready to send to close relatives and friends after he realised he would be caught.
Madoff's seaside beach house on Long Island, New York, was listed last week for $8.75million.
