Top row, from left: Al Kahn, the Time Warner Center living room and Bernie Madoff, whose former penthouse Kahn purchased last year. Bottom row, from left: the unit’s kitchen, the building exterior and another interior shot of the unit

Cabbage Patch Kids and Pokémon creator Al Kahn and his wife, Patsy, who purchased Bernie Madoff’s 133 East 64th Street penthouse last year for $8 million, have closed on the sale of their Time Warner Center condominium for around $20.5 million, according to the Post. The 62nd-floor unit had been on the market since January 2010, when it was listed for $33.6 million, and had since undergone a series of price cuts, most recently to $24.95 million. The 4,375-square-foot spread, which was listed by Brown Harris Stevens dynamic duo Elizabeth Sample and Brenda Powers, went into contract in February, as The Real Deal reported at the time. Comments

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Peter Madoff and the Old Westbury mansion

Peter Madoff, brother of Bernie, is trying to unload his Long Island mansion as he faces a lawsuit by the trustee overseeing the recovery of funds for victims of his brother’s Ponzi scheme. According to Newsday, the Old Westbury home that Peter owns with his wife has hit the market for $6.5 million. The five-bedroom, five-and-two-half-bathroom property, which is listed with Daniel Gale of Sotheby’s International Realty, sits on more than four acres next to a private golf club and has a pool, tennis court and elevator. The Madoffs purchased it for around $2.5 million in 1990. [more]

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From the March issue: Developer and New York Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon has been building his real estate empire since the early 1970s. But, as has been widely reported, the fall of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff has been wreaking havoc for him. Last month, Madoff said that Wilpon, who was invested in his funds, “knew nothing” about his scam. But Madoff’s victims are going after Wilpon and his partners for millions, and now he’s shopping for new Mets investors. Here’s a look at the trajectory of his career. [more]

The Donald is pitching the embattled Wilpon family on a bailout for their New York Mets, he told the New York Times today. Trump, who has a habit of making public plays to take over struggling New York City institutions (see: Tavern on the Green, Lasker and Wollman rinks), told the paper that he called friend and fellow developer Fred Wilpon a couple of weeks ago to set up a meeting to discuss the possibility of buying the team. Wilpon, who is the team’s principal owner, said last month that he was seeking a buyer for up to a quarter of the club after being sued by the trustee in the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy case for as much as $1 billion. The Wilpon-Trump meeting hasn’t happened yet, but Trump said he won’t settle for anything less than majority ownership. [more]

Mets principal owner Sterling Equities is considering selling part of the team to “strategic partners” due to the financial uncertainty created by the lawsuit filed against them by the trustee in the Bernie Madoff bankruptcy case, the Post reported. Fred Wilpon, the team’s CEO, and his son Jeff Wilpon, the COO, said in a statement that they have hired investment bank Allen & Co. to explore alternatives, including adding one or more strategic partners. While Sterling Equities is working to settle the suit, it wants to “address the air of uncertainty created by this lawsuit, and to provide additional assurance that the New York Mets will continue to have the necessary resources to fully compete and win,” the statement said. [more]

Lipstick Building and Bernard Madoff

The new owners of the Lipstick Building, the 636,000-square-foot Third Avenue office tower where Bernie Madoff carried out his massive fraud, are making a push to rent out the building’s empty space with the help of $15 million in new capital and a lobby redesign, according to the Wall Street Journal. The owners, who are also now looking for other New York investment opportunities, are Daniel Elsztain, part of the family that is Argentina’s largest landlord, and Paul and Maurice Marciano, the founders of retailer Guess. [more]

Bernard Madoff and his former penthouse apartment at 133 East 64th Street

Last April, after toy tycoon Al Kahn purchased the former penthouse home of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff for $8 million at 133 East 64th Street, his wife, Patsy, told the New York Post that he “was worried about the [apartment's] karma” — turns out, he may have had reason to be concerned. The duplex home between Lexington and Park avenues is still vacant, sources say, and a mysterious blaze may be to blame, according to the Post. Compounding the Kahns’ problems are purported marital problems and a disappointing collection of offers on their former home, a 62nd-floor unit at the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. [more]

Real estate investor Fred Wilpon and his Sterling Equities were hit with a lawsuit today by the trustee overseeing the recovery of funds for victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, according to the Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit was filed under a seal, but Sterling Equities is among those Madoff investors that trustee Irving Picard has said emerged from the scandal with net gains. In a court filing last year, Picard had said that a partnership associated with Wilpon’s New York Mets deposited a total of $523 million with Madoff and ultimately came away with around $571 million. [more]

The owner of 885 Third Avenue, the 34-story office building where Bernard Madoff executed a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, filed bankruptcy today, according to Bloomberg News. Metropolitan 885 Third Avenue Leasehold LLC, the owner of the famed tower known as the “Lipstick Building,” listed as much as $500 million in debts and assets today while filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Manhattan court. Foreclosure on the building has loomed for months, experts say, after the owner defaulted on a $210 million loan earlier this year. [more]

Bernard Madoff

Bernard Madoff’s West Palm Beach mansion at 410 N. Lake Way closed today for $5.65 million, Joseph Guccione, U.S. Marshal for the South District of New York, announced. Originally listed Sept. 1, 2009 for $8.49 million, brokers Burt Minkoff and Jim McCann of the Corcoran Group were most recently asking $6.5 million. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer, whose identity remains unknown. “This sale marks the final disposition of all the properties related to the Bernard L. Madoff case,” said Roland Ubaldo, the Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal. “We will continue to dispose of the remaining assets with the goal of receiving maximum gain for the victims of this crime.” TRD

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