Vintage car linked to Madoff for sale

Aston Martin valued as much as $250,000 will go to fraud victims

NEW YORK - A vintage Aston Martin sports car previously owned by Peter Madoff, brother of Bernard L. Madoff, was priced at $200,000 to $250,000 by an auctioneer, according to an online sale catalog.

RM Auctions will sell the 1958 Aston Martin MK III Drophead Coupe at a Monterey, California, sale on Aug 19 without a minimum bid, said the company's spokeswoman, Amy Christie. After a restoration the car has a "factory correct" carriage green finish and is trimmed in tan leather upholstery, according to the catalog.

The proceeds will be used to help pay the jailed con man's former investors, who lost as much as $19 billion in the Ponzi scheme, according to Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Madoff's firm in New York.

Madoff's United Kingdom firm bought the car for Peter Madoff in 2008 for $267,000 and wasn't reimbursed for the expense, Picard said in a court filing.

The Madoff car, showing about 30,400 miles, is one of 84 Drophead Coupes built and has a "well-maintained older restoration," according to the catalog. It had a service and paintwork in 2008 from Aston Workshop in the UK at a recorded 30,184 miles, RM said. The restoration has held up and the car performed well on a recent road test, it said in the catalog.

'Madoff provenance'

"If I was bidding, I'd bid on the merits of the car and I'd not particularly want to brag about the Madoff provenance," James Knight, a car specialist at Bonhams, a London-based auction house, said when the auction was announced.

As many as 3,500 people attend the vintage sports car event in Monterey, Picard has said.

Featured lots for the Monterey sale include a 1970 Porsche 911S delivered to late actor Steve McQueen on the set of the motorsport movie, "Le Mans", according to RM's website.

Charles Spada, a lawyer for Peter Madoff, declined to comment on the pending auction.

Peter Madoff, sued by UK liquidators in 2009 for allegedly enriching himself unjustly by taking the Aston Martin, transferred ownership of the car to Picard on May 4, the trustee said in a filing. It is being auctioned with agreement from the UK liquidators, Picard said.

Peter Madoff was chief compliance officer at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. He was among those to whom Bernard Madoff confessed shortly before his arrest, according to Ira Sorkin, a lawyer for Bernard Madoff. Peter Madoff also co-signed Bernard Madoff's $10 million bond following the money manager's arrest.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 07/25/2011 page14)