Madoff Brother Gets No Access to Assets

Peter Madoff has lost his bid to unfreeze his assets: A lawyer for Bernie’s brother, the Madoff firm’s chief compliance officer, argued in court today that because Peter reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department in December to have his assets frozen, a later freeze imposed last week was unnecessary. The second freeze came as part of a lawsuit by law student Andrew Ross Samuels, who’s suing Peter after $478,000 vanished from his trust, over which Peter allegedly presided as sole trustee between 2003 and 2008. The lawsuit asserts that Peter “had full knowledge that it was a fraudulent Ponzi-scheme and nothing more than an unprecedented fraud.” No federal charges have (yet) been filed against Peter.