People and corporations, that benefited from the Madoff ponzi, got sued by Ivring Picard to recover money. He could end up suing half of the estimated 2000 investors. The current suits are for more than $10 billion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery_of_funds_from_the_Madoff_investment_scandalOn March 16, 2009, a bankruptcy court filing indicated the British enclave of Gibraltar has found $75 million in Madoff assets.[26][27]
On April 9, 2009, Irving Picard sued Gibraltar-based Banque Jacob Safra in Manhattan Federal Bankruptcy Court seeking $150 million[28] Madoff wired as a "preferential payment"[29] to the bank, invested on behalf of Vizcaya Partners, a British Virgin Islands company. Beginning in 2002, Vizcaya had wired a total of $327 million to Madoff's investment firm through 26 different wire transfers, by the end of October 2008. Coincidentally, Madoff's parents had an investment business called Gibraltar Securities, registered in his mother's name, using their home as the business address. In January 1964, the SEC dropped their investigation when Sylvia agreed to close "her" business.[30]
On March 23, 2009, the bankruptcy trustee disclosed that French authorities are going to seize the French Riviera apartment on behalf of customers allegedly swindled in France. The property, listed in Ruth Madoff's name is located in Cap d'Antibes, is worth about $1 million, and contains approximately $900,000 in furnishings.[31]
On April 17, 2009, Picard sued Kingate Management Ltd. for the return of $255 million transferred to it shortly before Madoff Investment’s collapse. Beginning in the mid-1990s, feeder funds Kingate Global and Kingate Euro, created by Carlo Grosso, channeled $1.7 billion of his client’s money to Madoff.[32] The funds are registered in the British Virgin Islands. The complaint also names Bank of Bermuda Ltd., a unit of HSBC Holdings Plc, as a defendant. The bank wired the money. [33]
On May 1, 2009, Picard filed a lawsuit against Stanley Chais, 82. The complaint[34] alleges he "knew or should have known" he was deep in a Ponzi scheme when his family investments with Madoff averaged 40% and sometimes soared as high as 300%. It also claims Chais was a primary beneficiary of the scheme for at least 30 years, allowing his family to withdraw more than $1 billion from their accounts since 1995 – money that belonged to Madoff victims. The case number is Picard v. Chais, 09-01172.[35]
Stanley Chais is a wealthy investment advisor from Beverly Hills, California, who is accused of steering money to private interests, including Madoff, through Chais's Brighton Co., a limited partnership formed to manage money. He took about 3.8% of the profits as management fees. His Chais Family Foundation, which in 2007 reported assets of $178 million and charitable contributions of nearly $8.2 million, was wiped out and has shut down. He had a home in Beverly Hills, and an apartment in New York. (See Participants in the Madoff investment scandal.)
On May 7, 2009, Madoff Bankruptcy Trustee, Irving Picard filed a lawsuit [36] against J. Ezra Merkin, seeking to recover almost $500 million withdrawn from Madoff accounts in the last six years. The complaint alleges that since 1995, Merkin steered more than $1 billion to Madoff through three private hedge funds, Ascot Partners, Ariel Fund, and Gabriel Capital. Since 2002, the funds withdrew at least $494 million from Madoff — returns that Merkin “knew or should have known” were fraudulent. There were at least 500 instances in the last ten years when his Madoff account statements showed large blocks of stock bought or sold at prices that did not match the stock’s trading range for the day when the transactions supposedly occurred.[37] The case number is 08-01789 (BRL): IRVING H. PICARD, Trustee for the Liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, v. J. EZRA MERKIN, GABRIEL CAPITAL, L.P., ARIEL FUND LTD., ASCOT PARTNERS, L.P., GABRIEL CAPITAL CORPORATION.[36] On May 18, 2009, Merkin agreed to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's demands to step down as manager of his hedge funds and place them into receivership.[38]
On May 12, 2009, Picard sued Harley International (Cayman) Ltd., which invested more than $2 billion with Madoff, receiving an average annual return of 13.5%. The lawsuit alleges the Cayman Islands-based fund ignored warning signs that should have alerted it to the fraud. Harley withdrew more than $1 billion from the firm in the two years before its collapse on Dec 11, 2008, including $425 million in those last three months.[39][40][41]
On May 12, 2009, Picard filed a $5 billion lawsuit against Jeffry Picower, his wife, Barbara, and the Picower Foundation. The complaint alleges the Picowers, friends of Madoff for decades, "knew or should have known they were benefiting from fraudulent activity or, at a minimum, failed to exercise reasonable due diligence." The Palm Beach, Florida, foundation had given millions to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Human Rights First, and the New York Public Library. It also funded diabetes research at Harvard Medical School and Parkinsons research at Columbia Medical School.[42][43] On July 31, 2009, Picower filed a motion to dismiss the claim, saying that he "genuinely believed in the personal and professional integrity of Bernie Madoff." He urged the Court that the lawsuit was a "paradigm of excess" that reflected a "frenzied effort" to recover large sums from one of Madoff's wealthiest investors. [44] On October 25, 2009, Picower, who was 67 years old, was found dead at the bottom of his Palm Beach, Florida swimming pool.[45]
As of May 14, 2009, lawsuits to recover $10.1 billion in fictitious profits have been filed.[46]
On May 18, 2009, Picard sued Fairfield Greenwich Group, seeking the return of $3.2 billion during the period from 2002 to Madoff's arrest in December 2008.[47] $1.2 billion was withdrawn in the final three months of the fraud.[48][49] Since 1995, the Fairfield funds invested about $4.5 billion with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, or BLMIS, through 242 wire transfers. The funds are Fairfield Sentry Ltd., Greenwich Sentry LP, and Greenwich Sentry Partners LP.[50] However, the money may already be in the hands of Fairfield’s own clients, who are likely off-limits to Picard, since they were not direct investors with Madoff.[51]
On June 22, 2009, Picard filed a claim against Cohmad Securities founder Maurice “Sonny” Cohn, daughter Marcia Cohn, and Robert Jaffe, among more than two dozen individuals and trusts in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The lawsuit claims that up to 90 percent of Cohmad’s income came from referring clients and that the firm had a “symbiotic” relationship with Madoff, having earned hundreds of millions of dollars from the fraud. The lawsuit seeks more than $100 million paid to Cohmad six years prior to Madoff’s firm declaring bankruptcy, and more than $105 million in profits Cohmad employees and their families withdrew from the investment accounts they held with Madoff.[52] The case is Picard v. Cohmad Securities Corp., 09-AP-1305, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).[53]
On June 26, 2009, Judge Chin ordered Madoff to personally forfeit $170 million in assets, and his wife, Ruth agreed to relinquish her claims of more than $80 million and to retain only $2.5 million.[54] The order allowed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Picard to continue to pursue Mrs. Madoff's funds,[54] and on July 29, 2009, Irving Picard sued her for $45 million.[55]
Madoff-owned United States properties were auctioned unfurnished after Labor Day 2009; artwork and possessions, including boats, will be auctioned later.
Madoff's home at 216 Old Montauk Highway, Montauk, New York, was sold through the Corcoran Group for $9.4 million to real estate investor Steven Roth of Vornado Realty Trust. Madoff's mansion at 410 North Lake Way, Palm Beach, is still on the market as of August 2010; in February 2010 the asking price for the property, also being offered by the Corcoran Group was lowered to $7.25 million, below the initial asking price of $8.49 million and the previous reduced asking price of $7.9 million. In May 2010, Madoff's penthouse at 133 East 64th Street in Manhattan was sold to Al and Patsy Kahn for $8 million, a markdown from the original asking price of $9.9 million and the reduced listing price of $8.9 million.[56][57][58][59]
On April 1, 2009, the United States Marshals Service seized Madoff's several boats from marinas on Florida's east coast; these included a restored, custom-made 1969 Rybovich wooden antique fishing yacht, Bull, valued at $2.2 million, featuring a hydraulic elevator and teak woodwork, as well as several other boats [60]'[61] as well as personal property within the family home in Palm Beach, Florida.
On November 19, 2009, many items formerly belonging to Madoff were auctioned off at a private auction conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service. Bull was sold at auction for $700,000 to an unknown buyer. At the same auction other items formerly belonging to Madoff were sold, including a 38-foot 2003 Shelter Island Runabout Sport, Sitting Bull, which sold for $320,000 and a 24-foot 2000 center console from Maverick Boat Company, Little Bull, which sold for $21,000. A 1999 black Mercedes-Benz convertible formerly owned by Ruth Madoff sold for $30,000. A 61-foot 2003 Viking sport-fishing yacht formerly owned by Frank DiPascali sold for $950,000. A black 1999 Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 convertible with 12,827 miles on it, owned by Ruth Madoff, sold for $30,000.[62][63][64]
The Manhattan penthouse and Montauk Long Island summer home were seized in July 2009.[65]
Picard plans to sell Madoff's plane and his interest in NetJets.[66][67]
In an interview in July 2010, Picard said that he could potentially end up suing about half of the estimated 2,000 individual investors who withdrew more from Madoff's funds than they had invested.[68] These investors claim such recovery would cause personal hardships. For example, one 87-year-old former school secretary had made mandatory withdrawals from her retirement account and had paid taxes on the withdrawals, but Picard had sent her two letters seeking repayment of $691,372.[68] On November 12, 2010, Picard sued five former Madoff employees: former head of operations Daniel Bonventre, former controller Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz, trader David Kugel, and employees Annette Bongiorno and Jo Ann Crupi. The suit seeks recovery of $70 million in allegedly fraudulent transfers.[69] On November 17, 2010, Picard filed a clawback lawsuit seeking recover of $20.4 million in false profits from Melvyn I. Weiss and David J. Bershad, who had both previously pled guilty to racketeering charges in an earlier securities fraud case involving kickbacks to clients.[70]
