High court blocks Madoff case claw-back bid

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 here.