Madoff Employee Must Pay $170 Billion, Can Keep Stamps

The first employee hired by Bernard Madoff has agreed he owes the government a Rolex watch, a painting by the comedian Red Skelton and $170 billion cash.

Irwin Lipkin, 77, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for conspiracy and making false statements in employment records. As with Madoff and more than a dozen others convicted in the scandal, the government is also seeking to recover the full $170 billion proceeds of the fraud from Lipkin.

Prosecutors filed a forfeiture agreement Monday in which Lipkin, who said he retired from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1998, agreed to a judgment for the cash forfeiture, which is about the same as the annual gross domestic product of Iowa.

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