Bernard Madoff, accused in a $50 billion investment fraud, was placed under 24-hour house arrest in his $7 million New York City apartment after prosecutors warned of his "harm or flight."
Madoff, 70, had been subject to electronic monitoring and a 7 p.m. curfew under a Dec. 17 court order. Now he is barred from leaving his Upper East Side apartment except for court appearances, and his building will be watched by security guards and video surveillance, according to a letter from prosecutors filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported.
"The bail conditions are what the government has agreed to," Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, said in an interview, declining further comment. He wouldn't say whether Madoff had been threatened.
Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 after telling his two sons and federal investigators that he had been using money from new investors to pay off old ones in a massive Ponzi scheme. He said clients of New York-based Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC lost $50 billion.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt said in the letter, sent to U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz in New York, that Madoff's wife, Ruth, will pay for the surveillance. Katz agreed to the conditions.