Talk about living high on the hog!
Relatives and employees of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff routinely charged tens of thousands of dollars a month on his corporate American Express account, court records show.
Purchases ranged from big-ticket items, like the $2,000 dropped by his wife, Ruth, at the Giorgio Armani store in Paris, down to the $8.11 niece Shana Madoff spent on Starbucks coffee.
Son Mark Madoff racked up nearly $81,000 in charges on the July 24, 2008, statement, with more than $77,000 for charter flights from the Tradewind Aviation service in Oxford, Conn.
The statements, filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, cover three months last year, but total more than $307,000.
The 18 card-holders were Madoff firm employees, except for three people, the court papers say: sister-in-law Marion Madoff, daughter-in-law Deborah West Madoff, and the captain of Madoff’s yacht, Richard Carroll.
The statements list dozens of charges at snazzy eateries like Balthazar in SoHo and Citarella in East Hampton.
One shows that when son Andrew Madoff dined at the famed Per Se restaurant, he left a measly tip — 5.6 percent of his $1,066.41 tab, or $60.
Shana Madoff, meanwhile, was a big fan of the now-shuttered Uncle Marky’s Organic restaurant on East 53rd Street, where she signed for multiple meals.
The free-wheeling spending helped Madoff accumulate an eye-popping 791,814 “Membership Rewards” points as of Dec. 31, 2007. The total was down to 464,135 by Aug. 24, 2008.
Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard filed the AmEx statements to help show how the swindler used his securities firm as a “personal piggy bank” to fund his “decadent” lifestyle and shower his family and friends with cash.
The papers also detail a $9 million loan to Madoff’s brother, Peter, and cash transfers to pay for a $4.3 million Manhattan apartment for Andrew; a $6.5 million Nantucket home for Mark and his wife, Stephanie; and a $2.2 million home in Mantoloking, NJ, for JoAnn Crupi, a longtime worker at Madoff’s crooked “investment advisory” business.
Sister-in-law Marion Madoff got an annual salary of $163,500 last year, although there is “no evidence” she did any work for the company, the papers say.
Also on the company’s payroll were Madoff’s housekeepers in New York and Florida, and boat captains for both himself and company Chief Financial Officer Frank DiPascali, who’s reportedly seeking a deal with the feds.
There were also nearly $1 million in corporate payments to three Florida clubs — Trump International Golf Club, the Breakers and Palm Beach Country Club — as well as the Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, on behalf of Bernard and Peter Madoff and their wives.
Also at the Manhattan Bankruptcy Court hearing, it was revealed Peter Madoff has agreed to surrender a $235,000 vintage Aston-Martin bought by his brother’s London-based securities firm.