CLEARWATER — Auctioneer Dion Abadi didn't know the painting's name, its artist, when he had bought it, or how.

Yet there it sat, on the floor of a Clearwater Beach hotel hall, an austere, wood-framed, "hand-signed lithograph" from the estate of disgraced and imprisoned billionaire Bernie Madoff.

Abadi called it a $6,000 steal. But others have called the "Bernie Madoff Auctions" a traveling scam, warned against by the Better Business Bureau and investigated by federal agents.

Abadi, who has led nationwide auction runs for more than a decade, said Tuesday's auction at the Marriott Suites on Sand Key was one of many hosted across Florida this year.

Buyers were invited to bid on Madoff's supposed painting, Ruth Madoff's golf clubs and rugs, paintings and jewelry sold by victims of bankruptcies, estate sales and Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

But the U.S. Marshals Service, which auctioned more than $900,000 of Madoff's possessions last month in New York, has reported it is looking into similar auctions that misrepresent goods with Madoff's name.

Source: Tampabay.com