THE SCALE of Bernard Madoff's attempts to transfer his family's valuables was revealed yesterday as US prosecutors detailed the contents of at least five packages shipped from his Manhattan apartment to relatives and others.
The list reads less like a court document than a catalogue of the trappings of Park Avenue privilege: diamond Cartier and Tiffany watches, a diamond bracelet, four diamond brooches, a jade necklace, a gold watch and other assorted jewellery.
The money manager, who is accused of perpetrating a $50 billion "Ponzi" scheme, sent the items in an apparent violation of a court order and should be jailed pending trial, US prosecutors claimed in a court document made public yesterday.
One package contained about 13 watches, one diamond necklace, an emerald ring and two sets of cufflinks and could exceed $1 million. At least two packages were sent by Mr Madoff and his wife to his brother and an unidentified couple in Florida.
Mr Madoff's sons alerted prosecutors last week that they had received jewellery in the mail from their father. Mr Madoff's alleged fraud came to light last month when his sons turned him in.
Ira Sorkin, Mr Madoff's attorney, had said that the packages contained heirlooms innocently sent to Mr Madoff's children and brother, Peter. Under a $10 million bail agreement struck by prosecutors and his lawyers following the charge of security fraud, Mr Madoff is under 24-hour house arrest and electronic surveillance in his Manhattan apartment. White-collar defendants are rarely jailed pending trial.
But his continued release presented "a danger to the community of additional economic harm and further obstruction of justice", Marc Litt, the assistant US attorney wrote, adding that "no condition short of remand will suffice to protect the safety of the community".
There was no practical way to prevent the dissipation of Madoff's assets, and asset transfers made it more difficult, if not impossible, to recover all available assets to recompense victims, Mr Litt wrote.
Mr Madoff's attorney said yesterday that a response would be filed in court. - (Financial Times service)
