Madoff Agrees to Receiver, Asset Freeze Extension, SEC Says

Madoff Agrees to Receiver, Asset Freeze Extension, SEC Says


Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Madoff, charged with masterminding a $50 billion fraud at his New York investment- advisory firm, agreed yesterday to extend temporary court orders freezing assets and appointing a receiver, U.S. regulators said.

A hearing set for today in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Madoff in federal court in Manhattan was canceled after he agreed to the orders and a preliminary injunction, said Andrew Calamari, the SEC enforcement official in New York overseeing the agency’s investigation.

Madoff’s company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, “is cooperating fully with the government,” said his attorney, Ira “Ike” Sorkin of Dickstein Shapiro in New York. “He is the sole shareholder,” Sorkin noted, declining to elaborate on Madoff’s communications, if any, with authorities.

Madoff, 70, was arrested Dec. 11 and charged at federal court in Manhattan with a single count of securities fraud. Madoff was released that day on a $10 million bond guaranteed by his wife, Ruth, and secured by his Manhattan apartment. A day later, a federal court froze the firm’s assets and appointed Lee Richards, an attorney at Richards Kibbe & Orbe in New York, as a receiver.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said Dec. 16 that the agency failed to act on “credible, specific” allegations about Bernard Madoff dating back to 1999. The Madoff affair will be at the center of planned congressional hearings on the reform of the SEC, said a senior Senate official at the time, speaking on condition of anonymity.

House Arrest

Madoff was placed under house arrest and will be subject to electronic monitoring and a 7 p.m. curfew.

Ruth Madoff agreed to give up homes in Montauk, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, if her husband flees. A person familiar with the investigation said on Dec. 17 that U.S. regulators are investigating whether she maintained secret records related to the scheme.

The SEC case is SEC v. Madoff, 08-10791, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The criminal case is U.S. v. Madoff, 08-mag-2735, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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