Last week, prosecutor Marc Litt in the Madoff Ponzi case called a complaint of private dissipation of Madoff’s assets, Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis in Manhattan today denied the request, saying that Madoff will be held as the original terms agreed: under house arrest in his $7 million U.S. Manhattan apartment, on bail.

Not ignoring Litt’s complaints, the Judge ordered Madoff a set of new conditions, chiefly the production of an inventory of all items in his Manhattan apartment and more vaguely, a strict ban of any transfer of property.

Marc Litt accused Madoff of transferring high value assets to friends and family outside of his immediate circle with hopes of evading any charges, redistribution or penalties on the assets which were acquired with funds embezzled by his $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Madoff was arrested on December 11th, 2008, after revealing to sons Mark and Andrew Madoff that the investment fund run by Madoff Investment Securities was, in fact, using future investor’s funds to pay off current investors in what is known as a Ponzi scheme. The S.E.C. charged Madoff with one count of securities fraud, a maximum worth of 20 years in prison and a measly $5 million fine (in comparison, see our list of losers in the Madoff case)

An preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for February 11th, after prosecutors agreed to delay the rushed grand jury indictment, in the preliminary hearing S.E.C. prosecutor Marc Litt is expected to ask for Madoff to be jailed again.

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