On the Block

By Kathleen Kingsbury

Been looking for a 19TH century French armoire in walnut, with a veneer of disgrace? The IRS may have a deal for you. It's auctioning off the cabinet and nearly 40 other antiques this week--all part of $2.4 million in bribes taken by ex-Congressman Randy (Duke) Cunningham--with proceeds going toward his unpaid tax bills. Here's a peek at other items, once owned by big-name debtors, that the government seized to put on the block.

MURDERABILIA A federal court ordered prosecutors to sell Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's papers and other personal effects--such as a copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style similar to the one above--to help pay the $15 million in restitution Kaczynski owes victims of his mail bombs. A sale date has not been set.

A DIFFERENT SONG Pop-soul singer Peabo Bryson found himself in a whole new world of tax debt before the IRS auctioned off his two Grammys in 2003. They went for $25,000, paying off a sliver of the $1.2 million he owed.

CLEANING HOUSE In his 2004 plea bargain, ex--Enron CFO Andrew Fastow forfeited $29 million, including his Galveston, Texas, home, which the feds sold for $595,000 last year.

FARM AID Saddled with $16 million in IRS debt, country crooner Willie Nelson had to let the agency sell off his 44-acre Texas ranch in 1991. But the auction's winner, who paid $204,000, didn't send Nelson on the road again. He returned the home to the singer, praising Nelson's longtime advocacy of farmers.