Bernie Madoff's new mug shot

Bernard Madoff's official mug shot was released Monday by the Department of Justice.

Madoff, who pleaded guilty last week to a $65 billion investment swindle, is now at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan awaiting sentencing June 16. He faces 150 years.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors yesterday took the first steps to try to force Madoff's wife, Ruth, to forfeit more than $100 million in assets - including her Upper East Side penthouse - because of her husband's massive Ponzi fraud.

Acting Manhattan US Attorney Lev Dassin submitted a three-page list of Madoff properties and other holdings that are in Ruth's name.

In addition to more than $62 million in cash and municipal bonds, the assets include:

* The apartment on East 64th Street, valued at $7 million.

* House and property in Montauk, LI, valued at $3 million.

* House and property in Palm Beach, Fla., valued at $11 million.

* An apartment in Cap d'Antibes, France, worth an estimated $1 million.

Prosecutors also want Ruth to forfeit more than $12 million worth of furnishings, art and jewelry in those homes, four boats - three of whose names contain the word "bull" - worth $10 million, three automobiles, $65,000 in silverware and a Steinway piano in the penthouse valued at $39,000.

Not on the list was between $4 million and $7 million that Ruth lent the couple's sons, "Mark and/or Andrew Madoff . . . for the purchase of properties located in New York and Nantucket," which are mentioned in a disclosure document filed last week by Bernard's lawyer.

Ruth - who has not been criminally charged - would be left with few if any assets if the forfeiture request is approved.

Prosecutors already have announced their intention to seek more than $170 million from Bernard Madoff.

And yesterday, a lawyer for trustee Irving Picard filed papers in Manhattan Bankruptcy Court to hire lawyers in Gibraltar to "pursue" possible Madoff assets there.

Peter Chavkin, a lawyer for 67-year-old Ruth Madoff, did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Prosecutors could have a problem seizing her estate in Palm Beach because she obtained a "homestead exemption" on property taxes for the residence.

That exemption could prevent a house from being seized for civil or criminal liability if it's a primary residence.

The only way authorities or creditors would get a crack at the home is if they can show that Ruth bought the property with money obtained by the fraud.