<div><p>A US court on Thursday approved the auction of Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff's former investment company for a price of up to 25.5 million dollars.</p><p>The federal bankruptcy court in New York declared Castor Pollux Securities the winning bidder for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS).</p><p>Three bidders competed as part of a government-appointed trustee's liquidation of assets belonging to the disgraced financier.</p><p>Castor Pollux will pay one million dollars at closing and up to 24.5 million dollars in deferred compensation through the end of 2013, the trustee, Irving Picard, said.</p><p>Picard said the winning bid was substantially higher than a pre-auction price of 500,000 dollars at closing, with payments of up to 15 million dollars, depending on future revenues.</p><p>"The additional consideration that we will receive as a result of the auction will benefit Madoff's victims," Picard said in a statement.</p><p>For decades, Madoff operated a massive fraud from BLMIS, conning investors into depositing billions of dollars that were then used to pay fictitious returns.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=49089779&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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