Madoff's Mets tickets to be auctioned
NEW YORK - A federal bankruptcy judge signed off yesterday on a plan to raise tens of thousands of dollars for victims of the Bernard Madoff fraud by auctioning off New York Mets season tickets owned by the disgraced financier's investment firm.
Before signing an order allowing a court-appointed trustee to sell the tickets to the highest Internet bidder, US Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland playfully suggested that the team needed to rebound from its mediocre start to help the cause.
"Suppose the trustee would wait a couple of months to see if the Mets do well?" Burton quipped at a brief hearing in a lower Manhattan courthouse.
Madoff, 70, pleaded guilty last month to charges that his investment advisory service actually was a massive Ponzi scheme that paid longtime clients with money from new ones. He is jailed, awaiting a June sentencing on charges that carry a sentence of up to 150 years in prison. 