Madoff home under contract to be sold

PALM BEACH, Fla., Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The lakefront Palm Beach, Fla., home once owned by convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff is under contract to be sold Friday, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

The sales price was undisclosed, but a Sotheby's International Realty manager said it was "north of $5 million."

The last asking price, made about seven weeks ago, was $6.5 million, The Palm Beach Post reported. The initial asking price was $8.49 million.

The buyers are an unidentified young California couple with children, paying cash for the house, suggesting a quick sale, the newspaper said.

"They saw it only once," Sotheby's broker Mary Boykin told the newspaper, recalling the offer was made and accepted by the Marshals Service about two weeks ago.

"They fell in love with the place and didn't care about its provenance," she said.

"They especially liked the deep-water dock. It was a big selling point for them," she said.

The buyers, who plan to renovate the house built in the 1970s, will have their identities revealed after the closing, she said.

Once the sale closes, the Marshals Service will schedule an auction of its contents, said Senior Inspector John O'Malley of the service's Asset Forfeiture Division in Florida's southern district.

Madoff's Ponzi scheme, described as the largest fraud in Wall Street history, cost investors an estimated $65 billion.

The 72-year-old is serving a 150-year federal prison sentence, the maximum allowed.