Madoff investment company auctioned for $25.5 mn

NEW YORK: A US court on Thursday approved the auction of Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff's former investment company for a price of up to 25.5 million dollars.

The federal bankruptcy court in New York declared Castor Pollux Securities the winning bidder for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS).

Three bidders competed as part of a government-appointed trustee's liquidation of assets belonging to the disgraced financier.

Castor Pollux will pay one million dollars at closing and up to 24.5 million dollars in deferred compensation through the end of 2013, the trustee, Irving Picard, said.

Picard said the winning bid was substantially higher than a pre-auction price of 500,000 dollars at closing, with payments of up to 15 million dollars, depending on future revenues.

"The additional consideration that we will receive as a result of the auction will benefit Madoff's victims," Picard said in a statement.

For decades, Madoff operated a massive fraud from BLMIS, conning investors into depositing billions of dollars that were then used to pay ficticious returns.