Madoff Trustee Picard Presses Claims Against Defunct Avellino and Bienes

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 here.