Madoff trustee tells NYC power couple to divvy up – Business News
The hard-charging trustee of Bernie Madoff’s property is pushing a New York City power couple to break up their super-sized Manhattan condominium — and sell two-thirds of its sq. footage to compensate the late Ponzi schemer’s victims, The Post has realized.
Irving Picard — the lawyer who has clawed back practically $15 billion for Madoff clients burned within the fund’s 2008 collapse — goes to uncommon lengths to implement an April 2022 courtroom ruling that discovered New York lawyer Malcolm Sage was a uncommon “net winner” within the Madoff mess.
Sage and his spouse Lynne Florio — a cosmetics mogul who previously was a high govt at skincare model La Prairie — reaped $16.9 million in income from the ill-fated fund, in accordance to paperwork filed in New York state Supreme Court.
Sage, on the left, and his spouse, Lynne Florio, who was as soon as president of skincare giant La Prairie. Patrick McMullan by way of Getty Images
Picard, nonetheless, satisfied a federal choose that those that withdrew more than they deposited with Madoff — who died in jail in 2021 whereas serving 150 years for securities fraud — should give back the distinction.
Now, Picard is now pushing for Sage to divvy up the couple’s swanky, 3,000-square-foot Greenwich Village condominium, which they created 30 years in the past by becoming a member of collectively three separate models.
Picard claims he can order the seizure of two of the residences — which measure 1,210 sq. ft and 902 sq. ft, respectively — as a result of they “remain legally distinct units and retain their original, distinguishable block and lot numbers.”
He estimates the 2 residences are value an estimated $4.6 million, in accordance to the petition.
“The trustee has never gone to these lengths” to get well property, mentioned a source conversant in the case.
45 Christopher Street, the place the trustee needs to seize two of Sage’s residences, is one of probably the most sought-after condos in Manhattan. Google Maps
Walling off and promoting these two models would depart Sage and Florio with a 930-square-foot, one-bedroom condominium on the 14th ground at 45 Christopher St. — an Art Deco model tower in-built 1931 that claims to be one of town’s “most-sought after” addresses.
“Malcolm Sage’s only known valuable asset that could be applied towards partial satisfaction of the Judgment is his 50% interest in Apartments 14B/C,” the criticism alleges.
“Selling apartments 14B/C is the only viable means by which (the) petitioner can enforce the judgment,” it provides.
Sage and Florio, who used to run with New York’s glamorous set and have been photographed collectively on the American Ballet Theater gala in May 2007 — a 12 months and a half earlier than the Madoff scandal hit — at the moment are representing themselves with out a lawyer, in accordance to courtroom papers.
There is no suggestion that the couple was conscious of how Madoff ripped off his traders or any allegations of prison wrongdoing towards them.
Picard, the highest securities lawyer in charge of recovering Madoff’s ill-gotten positive factors, needs two residences owned by Sage and his spouse Pool Photos By Daniel Shapiro
In a separate submitting on July 7, Sage and Florio claimed they can’t give up the 2 properties.
“The suggestion ‘to retreat’ to the confines of a one-bedroom apartment they physically combined with two other units in the 1990s made no sense because the units are not physically able to be divided,” they wrote.
Ariel Berschadsky, an lawyer working for Picard, hit back that their story was “ludicrous.”
“Apartment dwellings in New York City are regularly conjoined and separated,” he wrote in a July 8 submitting. “In apartments as valuable as those of the Sages, these costs would be inconsequential.”
Sage and Florio insisted that Picard gained the judgment towards them by “misleading” the choose, calling it “a fraud on the court.”
Florio was a 25-year veteran of the Swiss-founded skincare model, which is now owned by German multinational Beiersdorf. La Prarie
They wrote to Picard’’s firm, Baker Hostetler, denying that they’d profited from Madoff’s dodgy scheme.
“To set the record straight, all Madoff victims were net losers and should have been treated as such,” Sage wrote in his July 16 missive. “These victims should not have to turn over their assets including their homes, through the actions of attorneys capitalizing on the suffering of those already suffering.”
A spokeswoman for Picard’s firm, Baker Hostetler, declined to remark.
Actor Kevin Bacon was listed as one of Bernie Madoff’s victims from his fraudulent Ponzi scheme. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Neither Sage nor Florio responded to The Post’s requests for remark.
Sage’s brother, Martin, and sister-in-law, Sybil, settled a related clawback case on Sept. 5 wherein Picard sought to retrieve $4.5 million. The particulars of the settlement haven’t been disclosed.
His sister, Ann Passer, was accused by the trustee of raking in $4.7 million. She additionally agreed to an undisclosed settlement in June final 12 months.
Picard and his law firm have been tasked in 2008 with recovering any positive factors from Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, an investment rip-off that pays early traders with money from later traders moderately than from any precise income.
He claims on his web site that he has raked in practically $15 billion as of final month from his estimated principal loss of $18 billion.
Set up in 1960, Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities grew to become one of Wall Street’s largest market-makers, a company that matches consumers and sellers of shares.
This is how The Post reported on Bernie Madoff as soon as his elaborate rip-off had been revealed in December 2008.
Over the years, the firm was investigated eight occasions by the SEC as a result of it made distinctive returns.
But the 2008 international financial disaster prompted the firm’s demise as Madoff traders, hit by the downturn, tried to withdraw some $7 billion, and he couldn’t discover the money to cowl it.
The listing of these scammed included actor Kevin Bacon, Hall of Fame baseball participant Sandy Koufax, the Wilpon household that previously owned the New York Mets and movie director Steven Spielberg’s charitable basis, Wunderkinder.
A string of banks additionally misplaced money, with HSBC Holdings saying it had round $1 billion in publicity and Japan’s Nomura reporting losses of $358 million.
