Business

Bernie had a thing for mini-booze

Convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff robbed the wealthy of $65 billion — and was a liquor collector. Of mini-bar booze, that is.

“[Madoff] was clearly not a connoisseur, or a serious wine collector,” said Kimberly Janis, director at Morrell Fine Wine Auctions, which will offer for sale 58 lots from Madoff’s booze collection next Wednesday.

One lot is a selection of 2-ounce bottles of Smirnoff vodka, Bombay gin and Grand Marnier liqueur. The estimate: $10 to $20.

“That’s hilarious, actually,” Janis said. “Who knew that’s what he’d collected?”

The auction house expects to raise about $15,000 from the wine collection. It’s the latest sale of Madoff’s possessions, which were seized by US marshals to raise money for the victims of his $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

His powerboats and a Mercedes-Benz fetched $1.1 million in 2009. Last year, souvenir hunters helped raise $2 million from the liquidation sale of Madoff’s bed and his wife Ruth’s diamonds.

“He had some good Bordeaux,” said Elin McCoy, who writes about wine and spirits for Bloomberg News. “But I am surprised that this is all there was. The guy was a gazillionaire.”

The top lot of the wine sale is a 12-bottle case of 1996 Bordeaux, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, with a presale estimate of $3,200 to $3,800.