Agreement Gives Madoff Brother Spending Money

Bernard L. Madoff’s brother, Peter, gets access to $10,000 a month for living expenses under an agreement approved Friday in a lawsuit accusing him of swindling a law student.

Peter Madoff was in a Long Island courtroom to appeal a judge’s order last week freezing his assets. That order came in a civil lawsuit filed by Andrew Ross Samuels, 22, who claims Mr. Madoff took $478,000 of his trust fund and invested it in his brother Bernard’s Ponzi scheme.

Judge Stephen A. Bucaria of State Supreme Court approved giving Peter Madoff access to the money. The pact carries the same terms as a Justice Department document signed by Mr. Madoff on Dec. 24, in which he voluntarily agreed not to dispose of his substantial fortune and to curtail his personal spending until further notice.

He is permitted to spend $10,000 a month on living expenses, the judge said.

Peter Madoff arrived late to the courtroom, entering only after the final terms of the deal were negotiated in the judge’s chambers about an hour after the proceeding began.

He was briefly required to take the witness stand, where he answered “yes” in a hushed voice barely above a whisper to a series of questions from the judge.

Terms of the federal agreement were first revealed earlier this week in a separate court proceeding in Brooklyn. The extent of Peter Madoff’s holdings is not known; a lawyer for Mr. Samuels noted that Mr. Madoff owns a home in Old Westbury, an exclusive Long Island community, which is valued at $3 million to $5 million.

Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty on March 12 to defrauding investors of billions of dollars in perhaps the largest Ponzi scheme ever and will be sentenced in June. Peter Madoff was an executive at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. He has not been charged with any crime.

“This is a very small step in trying to get a little bit of justice,” said Steven R. Schlesinger, who represents Mr. Samuels, a student at Brooklyn Law School, in the lawsuit.