Madoff Trustee Can’t Sue Over Foreign Transfers

The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s business can’t sue to recover money transferred by foreign financial firms to investors abroad, a U.S. judge said, cutting off another avenue to compensate victims of the country’s biggest financial fraud. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan ruled that the trustee, Irving Picard, is barred from using a provision of bankruptcy law to force the customers of overseas feeder funds, which pooled their assets for investment in Madoff’s fraud, to return the money to Picard. The ruling was made public today. More on Bloomberg here.