The hard-charging trustee of Bernie Madoff\u2019s estate is pushing a New York City power couple to break up their super-sized Manhattan apartment \u2014 and sell two-thirds of its square footage to compensate the late Ponzi schemer\u2019s victims, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n
Irving Picard \u2014 the attorney who has clawed back nearly $15 billion for Madoff customers burned in the fund\u2019s 2008 collapse \u2014 is going to unusual lengths to enforce an April 2022 court ruling that found New York lawyer Malcolm Sage was a rare \u201cnet winner\u201d in the Madoff mess.<\/p>\n
Sage and his wife Lynne Florio \u2014 a cosmetics mogul who formerly was a top executive at skincare brand La Prairie \u2014 reaped $16.9 million in profits from the ill-fated fund, according to documents filed in New York state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Sage, on the left, and his wife, Lynne Florio, who was once president of skincare giant La Prairie. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Picard, however, convinced a federal judge that those who withdrew more than they deposited with Madoff \u2014 who died in jail in 2021 while serving 150 years for securities fraud \u2014 must give back the difference.<\/p>\n
Now, Picard is now pushing for Sage to divvy up the couple\u2019s swanky, 3,000-square-foot Greenwich Village condominium, which they created 30 years ago by joining together three separate units.<\/p>\n
Picard claims he can order the seizure of two of the apartments \u2014 which measure 1,210 square feet and 902 square feet, respectively \u2014 because they \u201cremain legally distinct units and retain their original, distinguishable block and lot numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He estimates the two apartments are worth an estimated $4.6 million, according to the petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trustee has never gone to these lengths\u201d to recover assets, said a source familiar with the case.<\/p>\n
45 Christopher Street, where the trustee wants to seize two of Sage\u2019s apartments, is one of the most sought-after condos in Manhattan. Google Maps<\/p>\n
Walling off and selling those two units would leave Sage and Florio with a 930-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment on the 14th floor at 45 Christopher St. \u2014 an Art Deco style tower built in 1931 that claims to be one of the city\u2019s \u201cmost-sought after\u201d addresses.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalcolm Sage\u2019s only known valuable asset that could be applied towards partial satisfaction of the Judgment is his 50% interest in Apartments 14B\/C,\u201d the complaint alleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cSelling apartments 14B\/C is the only viable means by which (the) petitioner can enforce the judgment,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n
Sage and Florio, who used to run with New York\u2019s glamorous set and were photographed together at the American Ballet Theater gala in May 2007 \u2014 a year and a half before the Madoff scandal hit \u2014 are now representing themselves without a lawyer, according to court papers.<\/p>\n
There is no suggestion that the couple was aware of how Madoff ripped off his investors<\/a> or any allegations of criminal wrongdoing against them.<\/p>\n Picard, the top securities lawyer in charge of recovering Madoff\u2019s ill-gotten gains, wants two apartments owned by Sage and his wife Pool Photos By Daniel Shapiro<\/p>\n In a separate filing on July 7, Sage and Florio claimed they cannot surrender the two properties.<\/p>\n \u201cThe suggestion \u2018to retreat\u2019 to the confines of a one-bedroom apartment they physically combined with two other units in the 1990s made no sense because the units are not physically able to be divided,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n Ariel Berschadsky, an attorney working for Picard, hit back that their story was \u201cludicrous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cApartment dwellings in New York City are regularly conjoined and separated,\u201d he wrote in a July 8 filing. \u201cIn apartments as valuable as those of the Sages, these costs would be inconsequential.\u201d<\/p>\n Sage and Florio insisted that Picard won the judgment against them by \u201cmisleading\u201d the judge, calling it \u201ca fraud on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n Florio was a 25-year veteran of the Swiss-founded skincare brand, which is now owned by German multinational Beiersdorf. La Prarie<\/p>\n They wrote to Picard\u2019\u2019s firm, Baker Hostetler, denying that they had profited from Madoff\u2019s dodgy scheme.<\/p>\n \u201cTo set the record straight, all Madoff victims were net losers and should have been treated as such,\u201d Sage wrote in his July 16 missive. \u201cThese victims should not have to turn over their assets including their homes, through the actions of attorneys capitalizing on the suffering of those already suffering.\u201d <\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Picard\u2019s firm, Baker Hostetler, declined to comment.<\/p>\n Actor Kevin Bacon was listed as one of Bernie Madoff\u2019s victims from his fraudulent Ponzi scheme. Evan Agostini\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n Neither Sage nor Florio responded to The Post\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n Sage\u2019s brother, Martin, and sister-in-law, Sybil, settled a similar clawback case on Sept. 5 in which Picard sought to retrieve $4.5 million. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed.<\/p>\n His sister, Ann Passer, was accused by the trustee of raking in $4.7 million. She also agreed to an undisclosed settlement in June last year.<\/p>\n Picard and his law firm were tasked in 2008 with recovering any gains from Madoff\u2019s Ponzi scheme<\/a>, an investment scam that pays early investors with money from later investors rather than from any actual profits.<\/p>\n