Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) Announces Receipt of More Than 50,000 Claims

Richard C. Breeden, the Special Master on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice administering the Madoff Victim Fund (“MVF”), today announced preliminary results for the first stage of the MVF claim process. As of the close of the claim period on April 30, MVF received more than 51,700 claims from investor victims of the fraud at Madoff Securities. Claimants from 119 countries reported aggregate unrecovered net investment losses of more than $40 billion. MVF is the official vehicle for distributing slightly over $4 billion in forfeited assets recovered by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from actions against persons involved in the fraud at Madoff Securities. The claims received have not yet been reviewed to eliminate ineligible, duplicate or overstated claims, which MVF expects to be substantial. In particular, MVF received numerous filings on behalf of banks and other managers of pooled investment vehicles that are not generally eligible to participate. As a result, the final totals are expected to shrink considerably before payments commence. However, the flood of claims submitted to the MVF gives a new indication of the size and global reach of the Madoff fraud. More on BusinessWire here.