Madoff's Brother Will Plead Guilty and Hand Over Everything He Has

It's being reported that Peter Madoff, who worked with his Ponzi scheming brother Bernie, will be pleading guilty tomorrow to two federal charges, face 10 years in jail, and give up some $143.1 billion—assuming he has that much.

It's being reported that Peter Madoff, who worked with his Ponzi scheming brother Bernie, will be pleading guilty tomorrow to two federal charges, face 10 years in jail, and give up some $143.1 billion—assuming he has that much. Peter is the former chief compliance officer at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, and according to court papers obtained by the AP, Madoff had received at least $60 million during the fraud and manipulated fake stock trades to make large withdrawals.

"Court papers signed by a federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday show Peter Madoff will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and other offenses including falsifying records," reports the AP's Larry Neumeister. While Bloomberg's Patricia Hurtado reports that court papers say that "Madoff agrees not to seek a sentence of other than 10 years’ imprisonment ... and that Peter Madoff agrees to the criminal forfeiture of approximately $143.1 billion, including all of his real and personal property."

So at $143.1 billion, is the definitely the shock figure here along with the measly 10 years Peter will be serving (in comparison, Bernie was sentenced to 150). "I honestly cannot fathom how Peter Madoff has $143 billion in property. Bill Gates is worth about $60 billion," Tweeted New York's Kevin Roose, putting that amount of wealth into perspective (sort of). But it seems like Randall Lane, editor of Forbes has the best explanation of the crazy forfeiture number:" Surely just prosecutors way of saying 'whatever we find, we get.'" And:

@kevinroose @SchaeferStreet @EamonJavers really think it's the same was when mass murdererer gets 250 yrs in jail...

— Randall Lane (@RandallLane) June 27, 2012

And it's worth keeping in mind that when Bernie was sentenced, he was hit with a $170.8 billion forfeiture, which Reuters noted earlier this month was "more than twice his estimated fraud."