Two days after agreeing to plead guilty to securities fraud and falsifying records of an investment adviser, Peter Madoff has been taken into custody this morning. According to NBC New York, "FBI agents arrested Peter Madoff at his lawyer's office in midtown early Friday. Wearing a blue shirt, he was led into a car by two FBI agents and is expected to be processed at 26 Federal Plaza before being taken to the federal courthouse to plead guilty, according to people familiar with the matter."
Madoff, whose brother Bernard Madoff orchestrated a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme and is now serving 150 years in federal prison, will serve 10 years and have to give up his fortune, including the forfeiture of $143 billion, which is the estimated amount of the money that flowed through the scam. It was believed that Peter Madoff took $60 million in ill-gotten gains, while his daughter (who also worked at the investment firm) took $10 million; his nephews allegedly took over $126 million.
His lawyers have taken pains to say that the 74-year-old is "not Bernard Madoff." Bernard Madoff's son Mark Madoff killed himself, allegedly because of the cloud the investigations cast over his family, while his other son Andrew can't find an apartment because landlords don't want to rent to a Ponzi schemer's son.
