In a development that may leave Bernand Madoff's family with no money, U.S. procesutors told a Manhattan court Tuesday that they consider the swindler's assets are worth more than $100 million and most of them listed in his wife's name, indicating their intent to ask for $31.5 million from loans to his sons and $2.6 million worth of his wife's jewelry.

Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan follow a previous government "notice of intent to seek forfeiture" this week after Madoff pleaded guilty on March 12 to running the biggest investment fraud in Wall Street history, involving as much as $65 billion over 20 years.

Tuesday's second government notice listed as eligible for surrender any and all ownership interest held in the name of Ruth Madoff or Bernard Madoff in 20 entities. These included some real estate ventures of Sterling Equities, co-founded by Fred Wilpon, owner of the Major League Baseball club, the New York Mets.

Accused swindler Bernard Madoff enters the Manhattan federal court house in New York, March 12, 2009.
A spokesman for Sterling Equities said in a statement that Ruth Madoff and Bernard Madoff's brother, Peter, "have made investments as passive limited partners in real estate funds" sponsored by partners of Sterling and "a limited number of venture capital type investments."

"Any potential forfeiture of these investments will have no material impact on such ventures," the statement said.

Lawyers for the Madoffs and their sons were not available to comment.

Madoff, 70, a former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, was arrested on December 11. He confessed to his crimes last Thursday in front of scores of people he defrauded.

He is the only person charged in the fraud surrounding the family-run business, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, in New York.

Bernard Madoff has been living in a small cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan since he pleaded guilty Thursday to securities fraud, perjury and nine other charges. He could be sent to prison for up to 150 years at a June sentencing.

In the earlier notice, prosecutors wanted Madoff and his wife to forfeit items such as a $39,000 Steinway piano and $65,000 in silverware. The three-page document list filed in U.S. District Court late Sunday also included forfeiture of homes, cars, boats and securities.

Their net worth was listed as about $826 million as of December 31, 2008, with the bulk of it in the investment business.

Source:Xinhua