$534M Paid to Madoff Victims; $4.5B to Go

(NEWSER) - The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s companies said today the disgraced financier appears not to have purchased any securities for his clients for “perhaps as much as 13 years,” Bloomberg reports. It was “cash in and cash out,” Irving Picard said. "It was all just made up," a lawyer working with Picard said, according to the AP. "You got somebody else's money." More»

Judge gives partial victory to both sides in lawsuit

(NEWSER) - The New York Mets' owners may have to return some of $300 million in profits they made dealing with Bernie Madoff, but their $700 million principal is probably safe. A judge has decided that for trustee Irving Picard to pursue the Mets owners' principal investment, he must prove that they were "willfully blind" to the fraudulent nature of Madoff's enterprise, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ruling could make it harder for Picard to win back large sums from others. More»

Mark's death won't stop cases against brother Andrew

(NEWSER) - Bernie Madoff's son Mark may have committed suicide on Saturday but the lawsuits against him and his brother, Andrew, stemming from their father's Ponzi scheme are alive and well. Andrew Madoff, now Bernard Madoff's only surviving son, had the same responsibilities as his brother at the family firm, and is now expected to be the focus of even more attention than before in civil and criminal investigations, the Daily Beast reports. More»

Trustee says bank enabled fraud by ignoring warning signs

(NEWSER) - Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme survived for so long because HSBC ignored "red flags" and kept funneling investors' money to the fraudster, says the trustee trying to reclaim money for Madoff's victims. Irving Picard is suing the bank and a group of feeder funds for at least $9 billion, the New York Times reports. More»

Irving Picard sues, again, for money

(NEWSER) - The court-appointed trustee seeking to recover billions of dollars lost by Bernie Madoff is suing for $30 million that he says the Madoff family invested in oil, gas, and tech, reports the AP . The suit filed by trustee Irving Picard says the investments were used as vehicles to funnel money out of Madoff's business, and comes as a follow-up to the lawsuit he filed in November seeking nearly $200 million from Madoff family members who he said lived lavishly while using the family business like a "piggy bank." More»