A buyer finally has been found for Tom Petters' six-bedroom, three-level beach home on the Atlantic Ocean near Palm Beach, Fla.

According to court documents, the offer on the home in Manalapan is for $9.475 million, about $300,000 less than the appraised $9.75 value but just over $1 million more than the outstanding $8.4 million mortgage.

Petters, under indictment for allegedly masterminding a $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme, bought the 11,000-square-foot house for $8.75 million in 2004.

The sale price includes a number of amenities, including a wine collection valued at $2,500 and an assortment of digital cameras, flat-screen TVs and digital picture frames worth $4,000.

Doug Kelley, the court-appointed receiver managing Petters' estate pending trial, said weakness in the Florida real estate market, compounded recently by the collapse of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, made buyers scarce.

"Given the drastically weakened residential real estate market in general and the high-end nature of the property in particular, it is in the best interests of the receivership to accept the buyer's offer to purchase the property," attorneys for Kelley wrote.

The buyers are Robert and Suzanne Steinberg of Greenwich, Conn. Robert Steinberg is a former senior executive at Bear Stearns & Co.

Sale terms require the approval of U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery in Minneapolis, who is overseeing the Petters estate.

DAVID PHELPS