“In the case of the Fulds, it might not be that challenging because the transfer was made after Lehman’s collapse already occurred, and the home “was obviously sold for well below fair-market value,” said Roccy DeFrancesco, an asset protection attorney and founder of the Wealth Preservation Institute in St. Joseph, Mich. “On the surface, that would seem to have all the signs of a fraudulent transfer,” he said. The Madoffs, however, present a much more challenging scenario: Many of the major assets that are currently in Ms. Madoff’s name, including three residencies in the United States and France worth a combined $19 million — were purchased directly by Ms. Madoff years ago, according to court documents.

She bought the New York penthouse in 1984, according to a financial statement Mr. Madoff submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission that was disclosed earlier this month. Ms. Madoff also ponied up for the family’s $11 million mansion in Palm Beach , Fla. , in 1994, and then she bought a $1 million home in France ‘s Cap d’Antibes in 2000 or 2001, according to court documents. The Madoffs’ $3 million home in Montauk, N.Y., was jointly purchased by the couple in 1979.

Given the timing of these purchases, the assets may now be considered “old and cold,” or off-limits to Mr. Madoff’s victims, noted Mr. Rothschild.

Mr. Madoff, when he entered his guilty plea this month, said that “to the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early 1990s.”

More at Investment News.com

Comment:

Oh well, that takes care of that. We’ll just have to take the gentleman’s word for it.

The game started in the 1990s, eh? In the beginning he said the game began only in 2005. Now, it’s aged by 15 years. A few more months and we’ll find the truth out. It probably began 15 years before that. Prosecutors have already said it began in the 1980s,  – which sounds much more likely.