Madoff's Prison-Bound Brother Appears At Granddaughter's Bat Mitzvah
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The prison-bound brother of convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff attended his granddaughter's bat mitzvah in a space described as "posh" this weekend, after a judge delayed his lockup date for the occasion.
Peter Madoff, 67, pleaded guilty last June to charges that he doctored documents that helped conceal a fraud that wiped out thousands of investors. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison last month.
But the sentencing judge delayed his lockup date so he could attend the Jewish ceremony.
Peter Madoff said a brief prayer in Hebrew and touched his lips to the Torah during Saturday's ceremony for his granddaughter, Rebecca Skoller, at the Central Synagogue in Midtown, according to a New York Post report. He was also set to attend a reception on Sunday at 404 NYC, an event space at 404 Tenth Ave. that the newspaper described as "Posh."
Peter Madoff will report to prison on Feb. 6.
In 2009, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for swindling billions of dollars from thousands of investors.
Bernie Madoff's son, Mark, committed suicide two years after the scandal broke. His surviving son, Andrew, remains under investigation, investigative sources told CBS 2's John Slattery. So does Peter Madoff's daughter, Shana, who, like her father, was a compliance officer for the firm.
Close to $20 billion vanished in the scam, the largest Ponzi scheme ever prosecuted in the U.S. The scheme left behind only a few hundred million dollars, not the $65 billion claimed in bogus financial statements.
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