Sold! Madoff NY beach home fetches over $8.75 million
NEW YORK - Bernard Madoff once slept there. Soon, someone else will. The imprisoned swindler's Montauk, New York, home, located on a beach with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean, has been sold for more than the $8.75 million asking price, a spokeswoman for broker Corcoran Group said on Thursday.
The name of the buyer and the purchase price were not immediately disclosed. Several buyers submitted bids for the four-bedroom, three-bath, 3,000-square-foot home, which was on the market for two weeks.
Sale proceeds will go toward reimbursing victims of Madoff's estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
The government is also selling two other U.S. homes owned by Madoff, as well as his cars, boats and personal effects.
It has also stripped Madoff's wife, Ruth, of most of her wealth. Victims of the Ponzi scheme are suing Ruth Madoff to recover far more than the government let her keep.
Buyer interest in the Montauk home may have been stoked by the notoriety of Madoff, and a decision by U.S. marshals to allow TV and still cameras into the home for a tour.
Madoff's 4,000-square-foot duplex penthouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side is listed for $9.9 million by Sotheby's International Realty. His 8,750-square-foot home in Palm Beach, Florida is listed for $8.49 million by Corcoran.
Estimates filed by federal regulators valued the Montauk home at about $3 million. The Madoffs also had a home in Cap d'Antibes on the French Riviera, between Cannes and Nice.
Montauk is roughly 120 miles east of Manhattan on the eastern end of Long Island, which is known for its many large summer homes owned by famous and wealthy people.
Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a medium security prison in Butner, North Carolina.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)