It's where Bernard Madoff broke down and confessed to his massive fraud, frantically wrote checks for millions of dollars as the scheme unraveled and appeared in a bathrobe to greet the FBI agents who arrested him.
Soon the world will see whether Madoff's luxury penthouse apartment - perhaps the only former crime scene featuring four fireplaces, a wraparound terrace and closet space galore - also will hit the jackpot on the Manhattan real estate market.
The US Marshals Service plans to put the 4,000-square-foot duplex in a 12-story, doorman building on the Upper East Side up for sale this week, betting that exclusivity outweighs notoriety.
Madoff "is behind bars," said deputy US Marshal Roland Ubaldo during a tour offered yesterday to The Associated Press. "We believe the cloud has passed." The marshals also gave the AP a look inside the disgraced financier's 8,700-square-foot, Mexican-tiled estate in Palm Beach, Florida, a yacht and two smaller boats docked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - property it hopes to sell off to raise tens of millions of dollars to help reimburse victims.
Prices for the New York and Florida home won't be set until brokers are selected later this week. His seaside beach house on southeastern Long Island was listed last week for USD 8.75 million.
