Madoff Trustee Collects $7.2 Billion from One Estate

As of September 30, Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s failed investment firm, approved 2,232 investor claims for recovery. He rejected 11,171 other claims because those claimants withdrew more from their accounts than they invested.

On December 17, Ms. Picower reached a settlement with Picard to surrender $7.2 billion that the family made from the Madoff fraud. In 2009, Forbes estimated that Jeffry Picower was only worth $1 billion, so it’s unclear how much he was actually worth. Ms. Picower says that she’ll still have enough money after the settlement to fund a new charitable foundation.

Picard has filed many lawsuits over the past two years seeking a total of more than $50 billion for the Madoff victims. Picard has now collected $9.8 billion for victims, and some people believe that Picard may eventually be able to pay all of the approved claims.

See Madoff Trustee Makes it Halfway with $7.2 Billion Deal, Financial Advisor, Dec. 17, 2010.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.