Judge Freezes Assets of Madoff’s Sons, Wife, Brother, and Top Executives

The wife, sons, brother, and top executives of convicted Wall Street scam artist Bernard Madoff have had their financial assets frozen by a Connecticut judge.

Madoff, the New York City money manager who pleaded guilty this month to a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, has claimed he acted alone in defrauding thousands of investors over a period of nearly two decades. Federal authorities have continued to investigate the massive fraud case and recently charged Madoff’s longtime accountant with lying about having conducted independent financial audits of the financial firms.

Now, more people close to Madoff have been caught up in the federal sweep of Madoff’s crimes.

Court Order Freezes Assets

Connecticut Superior Court Judge Arthur Hiller has granted a temporary restraining order freezing the assets of Ruth Madoff, who was married to Bernard Madoff; Mark Madoff, Andrew Madoff, the sons of Bernard Madoff; and Peter Madoff, the brother of Bernard Madoff.

The judge’s order will last until at least April 13 and prevents the Madoffs from selling real estate they own or transferring money between accounts. Those and other assets are now considered frozen.

The order also freezes assets of other hedge fund industry heavy weights Walter Noel and Jeffrey Tucker, who together founded the firm Fairfield Greenwich; Andres Piedrahita, a managing director at Fairfield Greenwich; Sandra Manzke, who ran Maxam Capital; and Robert Schulman, who once ran Tremont Group Holdings.

None of those covered by the asset freeze order has been charged in connection with Madoff’s crimes.

Connecticut Town Files Suit

Officials from Fairfield, Connecticut have sued Madoff for mishandling the town’s pension funds. Town employees are trying to recover millions of dollars in retirement money they say they lost in Madoff investments. The judge’s order freezing the assets possibly linked to Madoff came as part of that litigation.

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