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Student freezes assets of Madoff's brother

Andrew Ross Samuels of Brooklyn Law School lost nearly $500,000 in inheritance money in the Ponzi scheme.

March 25, 2009: 5:54 PM ET


NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A New York student won a court order to temporarily freeze the assets of Peter Madoff, the brother of jailed swindler Bernard Madoff, the student's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Andrew Ross Samuels of Brooklyn Law School said in papers filed in a suburban New York court that he lost nearly $500,000 in inheritance money in Bernard Madoff's scheme.

Madoff pleaded guilty on March 12 to running the biggest investment fraud in Wall Street's history, which prosecutors have said involved as much as $65 billion.

Madoff was sent to jail pending sentencing in June. His brother, who was an executive of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

"Samuels' grandfather passed away making Peter Madoff the trustee of a trust for him that's worth about $500,000, and the money ain't there," said the lawyer, Steven Schlesinger. "When you are the trustee and the money's not there, it's per se liability."

He said the temporary freeze applied to "everything he owns," but he did not know the total value of Peter Madoff's assets.

Liquidating Madoff's assets
A hearing was scheduled for April 3 in Nassau County State Supreme Court on New York's Long Island before Justice Stephen Bucaria, who signed the order on Wednesday.

According to court papers, the order said Madoff "is prohibited and restrained from removing any funds ... from any bank, brokerage firm, or other institution wherever situated and without limitation."

A lawyer for Peter Madoff could not be reached for comment