Saturday, May 18, 2013

NYC Feds' $17.75 Forfeiture Score Biggest In U.S. Marshals Service History; 14-Room Upper East Side Co-Op's Former Owner Now To Reside In Slammer For 12 Years For Running $292M Ponzi Scheme On Notorious Banksters

In New York City, the New York Post reports:
  • The US Marshals Service said [] that its $17.75 million sale of fraudster Hassan Nemazee’s plush Park Avenue penthouse marked the biggest real-estate deal in the agency’s 224-year history.

    The 14-room duplex was forfeited by the former Democratic campaign bundler as part of his guilty plea for running a $292 million Ponzi scheme on Bank of America, Citibank and HSBC.

    Combined with other properties and possessions that Nemazee coughed up — including an apartment in Rome, a Westchester estate, a 2008 Maserati Quattroporte and a 2007 Cessna airplane — the banks have gotten back more than $90 million, Manhattan US Marshal Joseph Guccione said.

    Nemazee’s former co-op at 770 Park Ave. was bought in March by hedge-fund analyst Thomas Purcell and his wife, Marina Shields Purcell, who’s the half-sister of actress Brooke Shields.

    The sprawling, 5,130-square-foot apartment was initially listed for $28 million in 2011.(1)

    Nemazee is serving 12 years in the slammer for bank and wire fraud.
Source: Park Ave. Ponzi pay.

(1) For a view of the lifestyle that a $292 million Ponzi scheme fuels, see Curbed NY: Inside a Jailed Fraudster's $28 Million Park Avenue Palace.