A judge dismissed part of a $198 million lawsuit against Bernard L. Madoff’s family by the liquidator of the con man’s firm, leaving Irving Picard free to pursue most of his claims. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland struck Picard’s claims for some transfers of money out of the jailed Ponzi scheme operator’s firm. Picard, who sued Madoff’s brother, two sons and niece, is free to amend his suit, the judge said in a court filing today. Read more in Financial Advisor [...]

American Securities Management LP, a business partner of the owners of the New York Mets, was targeted in a revised lawsuit by the liquidator of Bernard Madoff’s firm demanding $91.9 million that allegedly was taken out of the con man’s firm since January 2000. After meeting Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, owners of Major League Baseball’s Mets, the company, formerly known as American Securities LP, joined with the Mets owners’ Sterling Equities Inc. in 1991 to create a $4.5 billion-asset real-estate investment company, Sterling American Property Inc., according to Madoff trustee Irving Picard. Madoff was among the investors, Picard said in a bankruptcy court filing yesterday in Manhattan. Read more on Bloomberg [...]

Over the 30 years that Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz have owned part or all of the Mets, their other business interests had remained largely out of view. Even as Wilpon’s profile in baseball grew, he and Katz were rarely referred to as anything more than real estate moguls who gave generously to charities. The trustee representing the victims of the Bernard L. Madoff fraud, Irving H. Picard, has changed that. His attempt to win $1 billion from Wilpon and Katz — whether it bankrupts them or they prevail in court and keep the Mets a family legacy — has revealed much about the histories and personalities of the team’s owners, and how they made and managed their money. Read more in the New York Times [...]

Arthur Friedman oversaw the hundreds of accounts the owners of the Mets opened with Bernard L. Madoff during their decades of investing. He distributed annual statements, handled deposits and on occasion even tried to replicate Madoff’s strikingly consistent returns. Friedman, a senior partner at Sterling Equities, the family-run business behind the Mets, has said that over the years he and the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, also came to know of multiple investigations of Madoff by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Friedman even described the sense of drama as he, Wilpon and Katz would await the latest investigation, only to be reassured when the commission declared Madoff clean. Read New York Times report [...]

Bernard L. Madoff’s family won dismissal of part of a $198 million lawsuit by the liquidator of the con man’s firm, while the judge left Irving Picard free to pursue most of his claims. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland struck Picard’s claims for some transfers of money out of the jailed Ponzi scheme operator’s firm. Picard, who sued Madoff’s brother, two sons and niece, is free to amend his suit, the judge said in a court filing yesterday. Read Bloomberg Businessweek report [...]