The court-appointed trustee pursuing Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff’s assets won’t be allowed to claw back money from hundreds of former customers who profited from the infamous scam. Ruling without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday left intact a lower court decision that blocked trustee Irving Picard from seeking the funds on behalf of the thousands of other former Madoff customers who collectively lost as much as $20 billion in one of history’s largest frauds. Picard had hoped to recover an estimated $2 billion from so-called net winners, former Madoff customers who withdrew more than the principal they’d invested before the scam’s December 2008 collapse. More on USA Today [...]

Bernard Madoff’s victims shouldn’t expect to recover all $17 billion they lost now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case involving money that went to some customers more than two years before his scam collapsed. Irving Picard, the trustee unwinding Madoff’s firm, was seeking to reverse a December decision by the Manhattan-based U.S. Court of Appeals that shut off some older recoveries. In a June 22 order, the justices declined to take the case. They gave no explanation. More on Bloomberg [...]

A bankruptcy judge said the trustee recovering money for victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme can move forward with his bid to claw back hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called fictitious profits from Mr. Madoff’s customers. Judge Stuart M. Bernstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York said trustee Irving Picard can proceed with 233 lawsuits against investors who benefited from Mr. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The hallmark of all Ponzi schemes is the use of ‘the investments of new and existing customers to fund withdrawals of principal and supposed profit made by other customers,’ and Madoff’s activities fit the definition,” Judge Bernstein wrote on Tuesday in a 72-page decision. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled largely in favor of the trustee seeking millions of dollars for Bernard Madoff’s victims in 233 lawsuits that sought to recoup alleged fictitious profits generated by the Ponzi schemer’s firm. In a 72-page decision, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein in Manhattan said the trustee Irving Picard could try to claw back money that former customers he calls “net winners” withdrew from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in the two years prior to that firm’s December 2008 bankruptcy. Bernstein rejected the argument that clawbacks should be limited because only a few Madoff employees knew of the fraud. More on Reuters [...]

The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff’s victims will receive $35.4 million in a settlement with two funds once run by Wall Street hedge fund manager J. Ezra Merkin. According to settlement papers filed late Friday with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, the payment will be made by the Ariel Fund Ltd and Gabriel Capital LP feeder funds, through their receiver Bart Schwartz. In exchange, the trustee Irving Picard will deem valid about $367.9 million of the funds’ claims against the former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Ariel and Gabriel Capital will be entitled to $179.5 million of “catch-up” distributions. More on Reuters [...]

Roughly 11,000 additional victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme may recover some of their losses, and the number could double as an official overseeing a $4.05 billion compensation fund set up by the U.S. government reviews more claims. In an update this week, the Madoff Victim Fund’s special master, Richard Breeden, said he would recommend that the U.S. Department of Justice approve payments on the 11,000 claims, comprising about $1.3 billion of losses, once all have proper signatures. It is likely the number of “approved” claims will at least double, Breeden said. More on Reuters [...]

The trustee recovering funds for investors cheated by Bernard Madoff is urging a judge not to dismiss his suit against an accounting firm that had close ties to Mr. Madoff, saying its principals were a “crucial part of the machinery” that kept the Ponzi scheme going. In a Thursday filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, lawyers for trustee Irving Picard said the defunct firm, Avellino and Bienes, ran the first feeder funds that pooled investor cash and funneled the money to Mr. Madoff. Frank Avellino, one of the two principals, had a relationship with Mr. Madoff going back to the 1960s, according to Mr. Picard and most public accounts. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

As the Justice Department, Federal Reserve, and other regulators across the globe prepared the final details of a multibillion-dollar criminal settlement with five Wall Street banks over currency rate rigging, all eyes were on one agency that had the power to throw a wrench into the entire deal. Though a bit player in the negotiations, the politically divided Securities and Exchange Commission had to approve waivers each bank needed to continue to do normal business. The pressure on SEC Chair Mary Jo White was almost palpable, two people involved in the negotiations say, as defense lawyers and prosecutors barraged her staff with inquiries and fellow commissioners weighed in with threats to vote against some of the waivers. Determined not to let the squabbling scuttle the broad settlement, White called a private commission meeting on May 19, when all the waivers were approved. The settlements were announced the next day. More on Bloomberg [...]