Big bucks for Madoff's Aston Martin

An auctioneer said a vintage Aston Martin sports car previously owned by Peter Madoff, brother of Bernard L. Madoff, is worth $200,000 (Dh734,600) to $250,000, according to an online sale catalog. RM Auctions will sell the 1958 Aston Martin MK III Drophead Coupe at a Monterey, California, sale on August 19 without a minimum bid, said the company's spokeswoman, Amy Christie. After a restoration the car has a "factory correct" carriage green finish and is trimmed in tan leather upholstery, according to the catalogue. The proceeds will be used to help pay the jailed conman's former investors, who lost as much as $19 billion in the Ponzi scheme, according to Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Madoff's firm in New York. Madoff's UK firm bought the car for Peter Madoff in 2008 for $267,000 and wasn't reimbursed for the expense, Picard said in a court filing. The Madoff car, showing about 30,400 miles, is one of 84 Drophead Coupes built and has a "well-maintained older restoration," according to the catalogue. It had a service and "paintwork" in 2008 from Aston Workshop in the UK at a recorded 30,184 miles, RM said. "If I was bidding, I'd bid on the merits of the car and I'd not particularly want to brag about the Madoff provenance," James Knight, a car specialist at Bonhams, a London-based auction house, said when the auction was announced. From / Gulf News