The plot concerning hedge fund manager Bernie Madoff continues to thicken. And this time the news may benefit the growing number of investors trying to recover some of the $50 billion that the disgraced 70-year-old and former Nasdaq stock market chairman scammed from them as part of a massive Ponzi scheme.
On Jan. 5, the Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC) reported that Irving Picard, the trustee charged with overseeing the liquidation of assets from Madoff’s investment firm, had identified $830 million in liquid assets. Both Picard and the SIPC subsequently mailed more than 8,000 claim forms to investors who lost money in the investment fraud. The deadline for claims to be filed is March 4.
Claim forms and instructions also are available on the SIPC’s Web site at http://www.sipc.org/cases/sipccasesopen.cfm.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in the Madoff case are asking a federal judge to immediately revoke Madoff’s $10 million bail and place him behind bars. Their reasoning is based on the fact that Madoff apparently transferred various items totaling $1 million in value to a third party following his arrest on Dec. 11. The allegation, if true, violates a previous freeze on Madoff’s assets by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
As the case continues to build against Madoff, more investors are coming forth with accounts of their financial losses. As reported Jan. 5 by Bloomberg, Harley International Ltd., a hedge fund run by Cayman Island-based Euro-Dutch Management Ltd., invested all of its assets – $2.76 billion – with Madoff. Other Investment firms that have lost billions in the Madoff swindle include Tremont Group Holdings and Fairfield Greenwich Group.