Bernie Madoff's brother arrested in Manhattan

Peter Madoff was arrested early Friday ahead of a scheduled court appearance more than three years after his brother, shamed financier Bernard Madoff, pleaded guilty to the largest ever Ponzi scheme. FBI agents arrested Peter Madoff at his lawyer's Manhattan office at 7:00 am (1100 GMT), Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman J. Peter Donald told AFP. The younger Madoff is due in US District Court in Manhattan later in the day to plead guilty to criminal charges, including securities fraud, false declarations and falsifying documents. Prosecutors said Madoff has agreed to serve 10 years in prison, and hand over his fortune -- property and belongings worth $143.1 billion. Bernard Madoff, a charismatic mogul and once chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, is serving a 150-year sentence at a North Carolina jail where he earns $170 a month for prison work. He took in some $65 billion from thousands of clients over decades, building a reputation as a shrewd investment manager by paying out fake "profits" to some investors by plundering the new cash from others. Madoff counted charities, major banks, Hollywood moguls and savvy financial players among those who invested in his massive Ponzi investment scheme. But his pyramid fraud collapsed in 2008, wiping out numerous family fortunes. He was arrested in December that year, and pleaded guilty in 2009.