Madoff brother's vintage car fetches $225G

A vintage British car once owned by Bernard Madoff's brother Peter has been sold for $225,000, a drop in the bucket that will go into the growing pot of funds being used to pay back investors in the $20 billion Ponzi scheme.

The 1958 Aston Martin MK Drop Head Coupe, of which reportedly only 764 were made, found a buyer last month at an auction in Monterey, Calif., according to papers filed earlier this week in Manhattan federal bankruptcy court.

Trustee Irving Picard, who is trying to unravel the bankruptcy of Bernard Madoff's firm and recover money for investors, said the car was turned over to him in May by Peter Madoff of Old Westbury.

The car was among the subjects of a court battle between Picard, Peter Madoff and other Madoff relatives involving some $200 million in customer funds the trustee said family members improperly took over the years. Some of that money, Picard charged in court papers, was used by Peter Madoff to purchase and restore the Aston Martin touring car, bought for about $238,000.

Bernard Madoff's family members have denied wrongdoing and claim that he duped them.

In a related development, bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland dismissed some of Picard's $200 million lawsuit against the Madoff family members, including Peter, because some sections of the complaint weren't specific enough. But Lifland gave Picard an extra 45 days to revise the complaint.

Picard is in the process of distributing to Madoff victims about $300 million he has recovered through various lawsuits. The trustee has actually recovered about $7 billion through various settlements but can't disburse the funds because of various legal challenges.

Earlier this year, Peter Madoff, 65, who has been hit with a number of lawsuits, put his palatial Old Westbury home up for sale for around $6.5 million. The 14-room manse on Pheasant Run was purchased by Peter Madoff and his wife, Marion, in 1990 for $2.5 million, court records show.

Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison in Butner, N.C., for his fraud. His son Mark committed suicide in December in his Manhattan apartment.