Madoff, 71, is due to be sentenced on Monday. -- PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK - DISGRACED financier Bernard Madoff has been ordered to forfeit over US$170 billion (S$248 billion), prosecutors said on Friday.
US District Judge Denny Chin entered a preliminary order of forfeiture on Friday, according to Acting US Attorney Lev Dassin. The order forces Madoff to give up his interests in all property, including real estate, investments, cars and boats.
According to earlier court documents, prosecutors reserved the right to pursue more than US$170 billion in criminal forfeiture. That represents the total amount of money that could be connected to the fraud, not the amount stolen or lost.
The government also settled claims against Madoff's wife, according to Friday's order. Under the arrangement, the government obtained Ruth Madoff's interest in all property, including more than US$80 million of property to which she had claimed was hers, prosecutors said.
The order makes it clear, though, that nothing precludes other departments or entities from seeking to recover additional funds.
A call to Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, was not immediately returned.
The agreements strip the Madoffs of all their interest in properties belonging to them, including homes in Manhattan, Montauk, and Palm Beach, Florida, worth a total of nearly US$22 million. The Madoff's must also forfeit all insured or salable personal property contained in the homes.
Other seized assets include accounts at Cohmad Securities Corp, valued at almost US$50 million, and at Wachovia Bank, valued at just over US$13 million, and tens of millions of dollars in loans extended by Madoff to family, employees and friends.
The judge's order also authorised the US Marshals Service to sell the Manhattan co-op, properties in Montauk and Palm Beach and certain cars and boats.
Madoff, 71, is due to be sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty in March to charges that his exclusive investment advisory business was actually a massive Ponzi scheme. -- AP
