Madoff UK liquidators target vintage Aston Martin

Grant Thornton liquidators have made a successful appeal to the US Bankruptcy Court to have a vintage Aston Martin Bernard Madoff bought his brother targeted for seizure.

Mark Byers, Andrew Hosking and Steve Akers said the classic car, worth $235,000 (£157,000) was purchased for Peter Madoff using funds of Madoff Securities International Limited, the UK company that had been owned and operated by the convicted fraudster.

MSIL was a trading operation in London that principally traded for the benefit of the Madoff family. MSIL funds were used to make numerous large purchases for the Madoffs, including yachts, houses and automobiles, the firm said in a statement today.

The trio sought recognition of their right to act for MSIL under Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, which allows foreign liquidators to obtain assistance in the U.S. Courts in investigating, locating and seizing assets that belong to non-U.S companies.

'We are grateful for the recognition and assistance of the U.S. courts,” said Akers. 'We hope to be able not only to obtain assets for the benefit of creditors, but also to use the discovery processes that US courts provide to assist foreign liquidators to learn as much as we can about the assets of Madoff International for the benefit of victims of this enormous fraud.'