A Rogues' Gallery of Homes
A man’s home is his castle, and that’s particularly true for men who have been convicted of swindling others out of their money or other crimes. They’re often decked out with the best that other people’s money can buy — stunning in their sheer size and grandiosity. Other homes are surprising for just how common they are, but in the end, these spreads all have crime in common. Click ahead to see the homes of some of the country’s most infamous criminals.
Posted 26 January, 2012
By Constance Parten
Season 6 of “American Greed” continues Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
John Gotti
Property Type: Single Family Home
Location: Queens, New York
Estimated Value: $595,300*
Gotti, who some called the most powerful gangster since Al Capone, was known as the "Dapper Don" because of his penchant for expensive clothes. His home in the Howard Beach area of Queens was a bit more subdued than his clothing choices.
The Gambino family boss lived with his family in this two story, 2,428-square-foot suburban-style home at 16011 85th Street until his 1992 conviction stemming from 13 murders, racketeering, extortion, loan sharking, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
New York City lists the home as currently owned by Gotti's daughter, Victoria, whose Long Island mansion was featured in the reality TV show "Growing Up Gotti" and was foreclosed on in 2009. There is no public record of conveyance.
Gotti died June 10, 2002, in a prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., while serving a life sentence. He was 61.
Slideshow: Famous Mobsters: The World's Most Secretive Businessmen
*Zillow.com
Marc Dreier
Property Type: Condominium
Location: New York
Sale Price: $8.2 million
Marc Dreier, a high-profile New York lawyer who admitted to a $400 million investment fund fraud that unraveled at the same time as Bernard Madoff's huge swindle, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in July 2009.
Many of Dreier’s possessions were auctioned off to compensate his victims, including his 3,000-square-foot apartment on the 34th floor at New York's One Beacon Court. His condo was sold at auction in July 2009 for $8.2 million. That price included not just the unit, but everything Dreier had left behind, which according to The New York Times included a half-eaten raspberry peach pie. There were even photos of Dreier with celebrity clients like Jon Bon Jovi.
The photo at left shows the master bedroom.
Two of Dreier's other properties in East Quogue were also seized by the government and sold at auction for $10.4 million.
Bernie Ebbers
Property Type: Cattle Ranch
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Reported Sale Price: $68.5 million
The disgraced former Worldcom CEO's property featured here isn't so much a home as it is Canada's largest privately held working ranch. Ebbers bought the 514,000-acre Douglas Lake Ranch in the late 1990s for a reported $73 million. According to the ranch's website, the property has 11 stocked trout lakes, 20,000 head of cattle, 300 horses, a church, general store and a school for employees and their children.
WorldCom, which later became MCI, put the property on the market as part of a mass selloff of assets it seized from Ebbers, who resigned as CEO after borrowing $400 million from the company. Ebbers had put the ranch up as collateral for some of the loans.
The buyer was Denver Nuggets owner E. Stanley Kroenke, who reportedly paid $68.5 million for the ranch in 2004.
O.J. Simpson
Property Type: Single Family Home
Location: Miami
Estimated Value: $684,200*
While O.J. Simpson serves time in Nevada for an armed robbery, kidnapping and conspiracy conviction in 2008, his home in Florida is being foreclosed on.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court records show that JPMorgan Chase filed for foreclosure in September on the four-bedroom, four-bath house south of downtown Miami. Simpson's attorney has since filed a motion to dismiss the case, but there has been no further action since November.
Simpson bought the 4,233-square-foot house in 2000 for $575,000, property records show. Its current assessed value is $478,401, with property taxes of about $9,000. The 2011 taxes totaling $9,096.21 were paid in December.
*Zillow.com
Dennis Kozlowski
Property Type: Single Family Home
Location: Boca Raton, Fla.
Estimated Value: $16.5 million*
Described by Zillow.com as "monumental," this 74,265-square-foot compound at 4101 Ibis Point includes a nearly 15,000-square-foot main home, a guest house, tennis courts and multi-yacht dockage. As CEO of Tyco, Kozlowski used no-interest loans from the company to build the mansion, (pictured at the bottom center).
After his conviction in 2005 for accepting more than $80 million in unauthorized bonuses from Tyco, the former CEO put several properties on the market in an effort to pay off his debts. The Boca Raton mansion hit the market in July 2009 for a reported $24.9 million. After two price reductions, the listing was removed in 2010. According to Palm Beach County tax records, Kozlowski and his wife, Karen, still own the property. Taxes for 2011 totaled $154,304.
Famous Prisoners: Where Are They Now?
*Zillow.com
Bugsy Siegel
Property Type: Single Family Home
Location: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Estimated Value: $3.6 million*
Siegel never actually owned this 7,092-square-foot home at 810 Linden Drive, but it is the last place he lived — and where he died. His girlfriend, Virginia Hill, had rented the seven-bedroom mansion.
The man J. Edgar Hoover once called “the Most Dangerous Man in America” was killed on June 20, 1947, reportedly because the mob suspected he was skimming money he had borrowed to build the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas. Though never proven, it is been widely believed that his death from a rain of bullets through the mansion's living room window was a mob hit. The slaying remains unsolved.
The house was reportedly sold in 1951 and did not change hands again until 2003, when it was sold for around $4 million.
*Zillow.com
Ken Lay
Property Type: Penthouse Condominium
Location: Houston
Estimated Value: $4.67 million*
Ken and Linda Lay bought this five bedroom, nine bathroom, full-floor condo on the 33rd floor of The Huntingdon at 2121 Kirby Drive in Houston in 1995. After Ken Lay's conviction in the Enron scandal and sudden death in 2006, the property was deeded to Linda Lay, according to Harris County tax records.
While Lay was forced to sell other properties to pay back Enron creditors, the penthouse was not among them. Linda Lay, however, ended up putting the property on the market in April 2010 for $11.9 million. The price was reduced six times through September 2011 to $6.9 million but never sold. The listing was finally removed in December. Linda Lay is still listed as the sole owner.
Slideshow: Cities Where Homes Sell Fast
*Zillow.com
Bernie Madoff
Property Type: Vacation Home
Location: Palm Beach, Fla.
Estimated Value: $5.06 million*
Bernard Madoff’s 8,800-square-foot, five-bedroom, seven-bath, two-level Palm Beach property at 410 N. Lake Way was originally listed in 2009 at $8.49 million, but was cut several times before a bid was made.
Characterized as "tropical and casual, yet elegant," the home sold for an undisclosed amount. From the moment you enter this amazing light-filled Caribbean home, you are looking past the dock across the Intracoastal Waterway.
Also on the auction block was Madoff's Montauk, N.Y., beach home...
*Zillow.com
Bernie Madoff
Property Type: Vacation Home
Location: Montauk, N.Y.
Sale Price: $9.41 million
Madoff’s less spectacular, 3,000-square-foot, oceanfront property in Montauk sold in less than three weeks for significantly more than the $8.75 million asking price.
Located at 216 Old Montauk Highway, the home was seized on July 1, 2009, by marshal’s deputies.
Madoff’s seven-room duplex penthouse on New York's Upper East Side is still listed for sale with Sotheby's for $8.9 million.
Richard Scrushy
Property Type: Single Family Home
Location: Birmingham, Ala.
List Price: $2.4 million*
Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy’s seven-bedroom, 10-bath home at 2406 Longleaf in Vestavia Hills is listed for $2.4 million and has "spectacular panoramic views, total privacy, gorgeous grounds, pool, blue stone patios," and much more, according to the property listing.
The home was seized in 2009, along with numerous other properties Scrushy owned, to help satisfy a $2.8 billion judgment against him won by HealthSouth shareholders. Scrushy fell from grace after federal prosecutors accused him of masterminding a $2.7 billion fraud.
Scrushy, acquitted in 2005 in a major corporate fraud case, was sentenced to 80 months in prison in 2007 for bribery in an alleged scheme to manipulate hospital building permissions that favored HealthSouth. On Jan. 25, Scrushy was resentenced to a reduced term of 70 months in prison.
After more than 18 months on the market, neither Scrushy’s home nor a summer house on Lake Martin near Birmingham have sold. Another property, including a 19-acre parcel that has a lake, a barn and a former guest house, was recently purchased by Briarwood Presbyterian Church for roughly $2 million.
*realestate.al.com
Phil Spector
Property Type: Single Family Home
Location: Alhambra, Calif.
Estimated Value: $2.179 million*
Music mogul Phil Spector bought his castle in Alhambra, Calif., in 1998 for a reported $1.1 million. When he was convicted in 2009 of murdering actress Lana Clarkson in the mansion, it was reported that Spector was prepared to sell it to finance his appeal. The eight-bedroom castle at 1700 Grand View Drive, which was built in 1925, hasn't hit the market yet.
*Zillow.com
Season 6 of American Greed
It's a new year and "American Greed" has a whole new season of scams and schemes. Some people really will do anything for money.
The all-new season for "American Greed" continues Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 9p | 10p | 12a | 1a ET
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