Madoff trustee is dealt fresh legal setback

A Manhattan federal judge has limited the ability of the trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme to recoup sums that may have been fraudulently transferred outside the United States. In a decision on Sunday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the trustee, Irving Picard, could not invoke federal bankruptcy law to recover money transferred outside the United States between foreign entities, citing a presumption that the law does not apply extraterritorially. According to court records, the decision affects several dozen lawsuits brought by Picard, who is liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. More on Reuters here.