Bernie Madoff has instructed his lawyers to prevent any seizing and monetizing of his assets. The suggestion is that these assets are in his wife’s name and thus they are unrelated to the ponzi scheme that Madoff was running. What hubris on the part of Madoff! This man is the lowest form of life on the planet. Not only is he the largest individual criminal in the history of the world (think about that for a minute – he’s stolen more money than any other person ever born), but now he wants to be flagrant about using loopholes in the law to keep those assets. What a disgusting pig.
The request was acknowledged, but not granted, in court documents filed on Monday both by federal prosecutors and the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Mr. Madoff’s estate for the benefit of customers who say they have lost billions they entrusted to Mr. Madoff over many years.
Mr. Madoff’s assets were frozen in December after he was arrested on charges of operating a worldwide Ponzi scheme, with losses he allegedly said were as high as $50 billion. In January, his wife agreed to a voluntary asset freeze when prosecutors, citing the couple’s effort to mail out expensive jewelry to family and friends, sought to revoke her husband’s bail.
The New York Times’ Deal Book blog posted the above piece in the story about Madoff. My suggestion is to liquidate the assets and give them back to the folks that this disgusting human being ripped off. Giving the money back might actually be a hard case since you have to figure out who gets the money first, but I would probably err on the side of giving the dollars back to the elderly first, then the foundations, and then the rest of his investors. Granted, no one will be receiving the entire value of their deposits. However, if you’re in your 80’s and you went from $50 million in assets to $0, then I’m sure you’ll take even $50 thousand if it comes your way.
I hope they throw this Madoff character in jail for the rest of his life.