Peter Madoff, the brother of jailed Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff, failed Tuesday to convince an appeals judge to lift an earlier ruling that froze his assets.

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Peter Madoff, the brother of jailed Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff, failed Tuesday to convince an appeals judge to lift an earlier ruling that froze his assets.

Peter Madoff’s lawyer argued that Peter had already reached a voluntary agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to a limited freeze on his assets after his brother was arrested in December.

Thus, according to the lawyer, the decidedly non-voluntary freeze imposed last week by a Superior Court judge in a civil case on Long Island was redundant and unnecessary.

But the appeals judge didn’t buy the argument.

Peter Madoff is being sued by Andrew Ross Samuels, a first-year Brooklyn Law School student, over an inheritance allegedly lost to Bernard Madoff’s massive investment fraud.

Last week, a state judge in Nassau County temporarily froze Peter Madoff’s assets pending a hearing in the civil case scheduled for April 3.

The Appellate Division in Brooklyn ruled against lifting the temporary freeze and instead allowed the matter to be worked out at the hearing later this week.

Samuels, 22, is alleging that Peter Madoff failed as a trustee to exercise care and diligence in connection with a $500,000 investment apparently lost to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

Peter Madoff, 63, was the compliance officer at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. He has not been charged with any crimes.

Bernard Madoff is in jail awaiting sentencing on 11 felony counts to which he pleaded guilty on March 12. He could face up to 150 years in prison.

As a result of his guilty plea, Madoff will be unable to use his two Mets season tickets, located in a box just behind home plate in the brand new Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets.

Consequently, the bankruptcy trustee who is overseeing the liquidation of Madoff’s assets is looking to sell the tickets in order to recoup the proceeds for victims of Madoff’s fraud.

The tickets together are said to be worth as much as $80,000.


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