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Palm Beach Daily News

Madoff Palm Beach home sale closes for $5.65 million

By: Robert Janjigian
Published: 10/15/2010Source: Palm Beach Daily News

The sale of the former island residence of Bernard and Ruth Madoff, once valued by the infamous Ponzi schemer himself at over $11 million, closed Friday, with the house going for $5.65 million.

 

“Today’s sale marks another important step forward for the government,” said Joseph R. Guccione, U.S. marshal for the Southern District of New York.

 

The as-yet-unnamed buyer, who has a home in California, purchased the property through a limited liability corporation and paid more than the $5.39 million appraised value of the seven-bedroom, five-bath lakefront house as calculated by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.

 

Mary Boykin of Sotheby’s International Realty’s Palm Beach brokerage, who sold the residence, said the buyer plans to renovate the house — which was constructed in 1972 and renovated in the 1990s — before moving in.

 

The house, which has a swimming pool and deepwater dockage along the Intracoastal Waterway, had been on the market for 13 months through brokers Jim McCann and Burt Minkoff of Corcoran’s Palm Beach office. They were selected as the listing agents in August 2009 by the U.S. Marshals Service, which seized the house and its contents in April 2008.

 

The initial asking price in September 2009 was $8.9 million, but had been lowered to $6.5 million recently. Ruth Madoff is listed as the owner of the North Lake Way residence, which was purchased in March 2004 for $3.8 million.

 

It is the last of three Madoff-owned real-estate holdings to be unloaded by the government, which confiscated all the fraudulent financier’s assets shortly after his April 2009 sentencing to 150 years in prison. A Manhattan penthouse sold last February, while a Long Island, N.Y., beach house sold last September.

 

Automobiles, boats, jewelry, artwork, furniture and other personal property of the Madoffs have been offered at auctions over the past year in New York City, New Jersey and Fort Lauderdale.

 

An auction of Madoff property from the Montauk and Manhattan residences is scheduled to take place Nov. 13 in New York City.

 

Furnishings, artwork and other items from the Madoffs’ Palm Beach house will be sold at auction on a date to be announced soon, said John O’Malley, senior inspector with the U.S. Marshals Southern Florida District office.

 

“This sale marks the final disposition of all the properties related to the Bernard L. Madoff case. We will continue to dispose of the remaining assets with the goal of receiving maximum gain for the victims of this crime,” said Supervisory Deputy Roland Ubaldo of the U.S. Marshals Service in the Southern District of New York. “All proceeds from the sale of the property will go directly to the U.S. Department of Justice Fund for the benefit of Madoff victims.”

 

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