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Judge orders Madoff stripped of $170 bln in assets
2009-06-28
NEW YORK (AFP) - US authorities are demanding Bernard Madoff forfeit over 170 billion dollars in illegally obtained assets as they seek to keep the disgraced Wall Street mogul in prison for the rest of his life. Three days before the financier returns to a New York courtroom Monday for sentencing after pleading guilty to one of the biggest, most complex financial scams in history, US District Judge Denny Chin authorized the confiscation of Madoff's gargantuan holdings. "Bernard L. Madoff is liable for a personal money judgment in the amount of 170,000,000,000 dollars, a sum of money representing the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of... offenses charged in counts 1, 3, 4 and 11 of the information," the judge wrote, referring to the charges against the tycoon. In an accompanying order, the US District Court, Southern District of New York also stipulated that wife Ruth Madoff be stripped of 85 million dollars in assets, leaving her with just 2.5 million dollars in cash. US authorities have asked for 150 years in jail for Bernard Madoff, 71, who is accused of bilking billions from investors in one of the largest fraudulent operations of modern times, according to documents made public here. "The scope, duration and nature of Madoff's crimes render him exceptionally deserving of the maximum punishment allowed by law," prosecutor Lev Dassin said in a memorandum. He added that "a reasonable sentence in his case would be the guidelines sentence of 150 years or, alternatively, a term of years that both would assure that Madoff remain in prison for life, and forcefully would promote general deterrence." The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange operated the fraud for decades, conning investors into depositing billions of dollars that were then used to pay fictitious returns. Madoff has been in jail since March after admitting guilt in the scheme, the biggest in Wall Street history and estimated to have involved around 61 billion dollars. Many of the investors were elderly retirees who thought their life savings were in safe hands. Madoff told the court in March that of the billions of dollars which passed through his hands during his three-decade scam he never invested one cent in the market. Instead he stashed the funds in a Chase Manhattan bank account. The funds were then used to pay out "dividends" to investors in what is known as a "Ponzi scheme." Prosecutors say about 13 billion dollars were handed to Madoff. The financier himself has talked about losing some 50 billion dollars, which is believed to be the amount that would have been paid out had the funds been properly invested. The sums were shockingly large -- bigger than the gross domestic product of countries such as Luxembourg, and more than the external debt of several poor African nations. An attachment to Judge Chin's order outlines the assets Madoff will be stripped of in addition to the holdings he obtained through the investment fraud. In addition to substantial property holdings and cash, they also include 382,000 dollars in floor and window coverings, a 39,000-dollar Steinway piano, 16,910 dollars in chinaware and glassware and 18,000 dollars in linens from his East 64th Street apartment.
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