Auction of Bernie Madoff's personal items nets over $2 million

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Bernie Madoff's victims, who were collectively swindled out of more than $50 billion, effectively recouped more than $2 million on Saturday in an auction of the investment titan-turned-villain's personal items.

The U.S. Marshals Service sold off nearly 500 pieces of personal property belonging to Bernie and his wife Ruth Madoff in New York on Saturday morning. The money raised through the auction goes the U.S. Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Fund to compensate the victims of Madoff's history-making fraud.

"Another chapter (in the Madoff saga) ended here today," Deputy U.S. Marshal Roland Ubaldo told CNN by e-mail. "All 489 lots of ill-gotten gains sold today and the proceeds will go toward something good for a change."

For months, Madoff successfully avoided detention after his arrest for engineering a sprawling Ponzi scheme, posting $10 million bail and cloistering himself with his wife in their $7 million Manhattan apartment. But he lost his freedom -- as well as access to his once vast wealth -- when he pleaded guilty in 2009 to 11 counts including money laundering and perjury. A judge, saying he had perpetrated "extraordinarily evil" crimes, later sentenced him to 150 years in prison.

On Saturday, some of Madoff's riches taken from his homes in New York City and Montauk, Long Island, were on the auction block. Several items went for significantly more money than had been expected in what the U.S. Marshall's office deemed "a very successful day."

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/11/13/new.york.madoff.auction/

[gateley]

1. What, no Qing vases?

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-12/world/uk.qing.chinese.vase.auction_1_vase-qianlong-breath-of-fresh-air?_s=PM:WORLD

[no_hypocrisy]

2. That's it?? Geez, has the dollar devalued THAT much?