More than $23 million in assets were recovered Tuesday from the estates of Bernie Madoff’s late sons and from one of their widows, federal authorities said.
The assets will be liquidated and distributed to victims of the former Roslyn resident’s Ponzi scheme either through the Madoff Victim Fund, established by the federal Department of Justice, or through the BLMIS Customer Fund, which was established to recoup the losses of investors in Madoff’s fraudulent company, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim, said in a news release.
“To date, this office has recovered more than $9 billion in funds for victims of Bernard Madoff’s fraud,” Kim said in a news release. “Today’s agreement, one of the final pieces in the government’s eight-year effort to provide justice for Madoff’s victims, demonstrates our commitment not only to holding wrongdoers accountable, but also compensating victims of criminal fraud.”
Madoff’s sons, Mark and Andrew, worked for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and died in 2010 and 2014, respectively.
Bernie Madoff often gave millions of dollars to his family, and as part of these loans, his sons issued a series of seven promissory notes with a value of $28.15 million to their father, promising to repay the amounts with interest.
One of the notes was co-signed by Stephanie Mack, Mark Madoff’s widow.
The Madoff estates and Mack are now required to relinquish cash, securities and liquid assets worth a total of more than $23 million, as well as various stakes in other corporate assets, leaving Andrew Madoff’s estate around $2 million and Mark Madoff’s at $1.75 million.
For decades, Bernie Madoff used his position as chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities to steal billions of dollars from his clients.
On March 12, 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies, admitting he had turned his wealth management business into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme to benefit himself, his family and select friends.
A Manhasset woman who worked as Bernie Madoff’s assistant, Annette Bongiorno, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2014 for documenting nonexistent trades for Madoff’s company.
