Madoff's Brother Target of Crime Probe

Finance's most-tarnished family name took another hit yesterday when it emerged that Peter Madoff is the target of a criminal probe relating to big brother Bernie's Ponzi scheme. A court filing states that the Manhattan US attorney's office is conducting an "active and wide ranging" probe of Peter, who was chief compliance officer at Bernie's firm, the New York Post reports.

Peter is the first of Madoff's relatives to be subject of a criminal investigation in connection to the fraud. The probe came to light in a letter linked to a civil suit brought against Madoff by a charity. A lawyer in that case argued that Peter Madoff should face sanctions for invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 250 times during a deposition, refusing to answer even basic questions. Madoff's lawyer wrote that the criminal probe made the motion for sanctions baseless. (More Peter Madoff stories.)