Madoff's Beach House Sold for $9.41Million
Was listed at $8.75 million
By JONATHAN DIENST and HASANI GITTENS
Updated 8:18 PM EST, Fri, Oct 16, 2009
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Federal marshals say Bernard Madoff's Long Island beach house has sold for $9.41 million.
The U.S. Marshals Service put the 3,000-square-foot house on the market Sept. 1 to help repay victims of Madoff's massive fraud. The four-bedroom house is set amid the dunes in Montauk, a beach community east of the Hamptons.
The 3,014-square-foot Montauk home features sweeping ocean views, a columned porch, a stone fireplace, a swimming pool and rests on 1.2 acres at the bottom of richly landscaped driveway off Old Montauk Highway.
It sold on Sept. 18. The Corcoran Group — the broker that sold the home — said at the time that the property sold for above the $8.75 million asking price.
The 71-year-old Madoff was sentenced in June to 150 years in prison for orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme.
Madoff's Manhattan penthouse and waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., remain on the market for $9.9 million and $8.5 million respectively.
In estimates federal regulators filed last year, Madoff himself valued his Manhattan apartment at $7 million and the Florida property at $11 million. He said the Montauk beach house, which he bought in 1979, was worth $3 million.
Madoff, 71, is now serving his 150-year prison sentence as the investigation continues into other possible accomplices in his decades-long swindle.
Thousands of investors with Madoff's once-respected advisory firm believed their securities accounts were worth tens of billions of dollars. But investigators say the totals on the clients' monthly account statements were fiction. In reality, Madoff never made investments and instead siphoned new investors' money to pay returns to existing ones — and to fuel a life of luxury.
Madoff's punishment included a forfeiture order that stripped him and his wife, Ruth, of nearly all their wealth. The order gave the marshals authority to seize and sell the homes.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Roland Ubaldo said furniture and any other personal belongings found inside will be sold at auction, "from pieces of art to Ruth Madoff's shoes."
The four-bedroom, three-bath beach house — which Ubaldo described as "simple, stylish and understated" — is at the bottom of a steep, lushly landscaped driveway off Old Montauk Highway.
The second-floor entrance leads to a small master bedroom with a private terrace. A staircase descends to a living room with vaulted ceilings, exposed beams and a stone fireplace. A tired set of leather couches, kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures appear to date to the 1980s.
Several sets of glass doors open onto the porch. A small swimming pool that also overlooks the Atlantic Ocean is to the left. A private path on the right winds to the beach through pine trees, rose bushes and dune grass.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York
First Published: Oct 16, 2009 7:18 PM EST
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