Victims of fraudster Bernard Madoff may soon be in line for some compensation.

Irving Picard (above), the trustee seeking money for Madoff’s former customers, has reached an agreement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to recover $326 million – that’s the sum that was previously transferred to the agency by Madoff’s firm, supposedly on behalf of foreign account holders.

Once the settlement money is recovered, some of Madoff’s victims with valid claims will be compensated. Says Picard:

“I believe that the payments made to the IRS falsely identified the funds as income tax withholding in order to give the investment advisory arm of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) an air of legitimacy and to avoid inquiries.”

A court filing uncovered by Picard and his team show payments were made by Madoff’s firm on behalf of 145 foreign account holders. These totaled about $330 million, but the IRS has erroneously refunded about $4.2 million to two of the foreign account holders.

Of course, this still leaves one hell of a shortfall when it comes to recovering all of the money lost in Madoff’s outrageous financial fraud. Picard said he has so far retrieved $8.7 billion – roughly half of the $17.3 billion worth of valid customer claims.

Madoff, meanwhile, continues to serve a 150-year prison sentence for his role in perpetrating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme. The former financier is serving time at FCI Butner Medium, while his wife Ruth Madoff has had to give up the couple’s $7 million New York duplex.

Bernard Madoff Trustee Settlement To Recover $326 million From IRS is a post from: The Inquisitr

David L. Kugel, a former trader for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities will plead guilty in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday for his part in conspiring to defraud customers starting in the early 1970s.

The guilty plead comes after a letter was sent to lawyers in which Kugel announced his plea while stating that fraud at the firm started two full decades before Bernie Madoff said it began.

If he goes through with his guilty plea Kugel will be the fifth former Madoff executive to plea guilty in the fraud case.

Kugel’s very early involvement in the firms fraud could help prosecutors who are currently investigating Madoff’s younger brother Peter B. Madoff who started with the firm in the 1970s. According to Peter Madoff lawyer John R. Wing he was unaware of Kugel’s “apparent cooperation” with the government and says his client still knew nothing of the Madoff fraud.

Madoff who is serving a 150-year prison sentence has repeatedly said his ponzi scheme did not begin until 1992, a fact that could be shown false if Kugel’s story checks out.

This court case is not the first for Mr. Kugel, last year he was sued for $22 million for playing a “significant role” in the fraudulent scheme including the creation of fake trade tickets to show a steady level of profits for select customers.

Under his role at Madoff Investment Securities Mr. Kugel earned more than $8 million.

Bernie Madoff Trader To Plead Guilty For Ponzi Scheme Role is a post from: The Inquisitr

Former customers of Ponzi scheme kingpin Bernie Maddoff has filed a class action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. hoping to recover $19 billion. The Maddoff victims claimed that the bank concealed and willfully ignored signs of fraud.

The lawsuit reads:

“JPMC chose to enable Madoff’s fraud, not just through the various ways it participated in his activity, but by helping to cover Madoff’s naked theft with the imprimatur of a globally recognized financial institution.”

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon threw out a similar lawsuit from Irving Picard, the trustee seeking money in behalf of the Madoff victims. The bank then argued that Picard failed to prove that anyone at the bank has knowledge of Madoff’s scheme or has worked directly with him to earn fees. According the the ruling, Picard does not have standing to seek money from the bank and stressing that only victims can pursue claims.

It has been a long battle for the victims. Do you think there is even a chance for them to recover all their investments?

Madoff Victims File $19 Billion Lawsuit Versus JPMorgan Chase is a post from: The Inquisitr

Victims of Bernie Madoff have filed a $19 billion class action lawsuit against JPMorgan & Chase claiming that the bank ignored various signs of fraud.

Filed in federal court in Manhattan the lawsuit asserts that even a basic cursory examination of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC would have revealed improper money flow issues that did not rely on any type of investment strategy.

According to the lawsuit:

“JPMC chose to enable Madoff’s fraud, not just through the various ways it participated in his activity, but by helping to cover Madoff’s naked theft with the imprimatur of a globally recognized financial institution.”

This newest lawsuit filed against JPMorgan & Chase comes just one week after a $19 billion claim was dismissed by a federal judge, that case was filed by the trustee liquidating Madoff’s former firm. Last weeks case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon who said trustee Irving Picard didn’t have the legally appropriate power to demand common-law damages on behalf of defrauded investors.

Picard has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against former Madoff clients since the firm collapsed in December 2008. Most lawsuits filed against the trustee are known as “clawback” lawsuits which were filed after Madoff customers withdrew too much money from the firm just before it collapsed.

Do you think JPMorgan & Chase should be sued for overlooking such a massive financial fraud?

[Image via Nicholas Piccillo / Shutterstock.com]

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sued By Madoff Investors is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ruth Madoff, the wife of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, revealed to CBS News that she and her husband were so deeply upset by the multi-million fraud that they planned to commit suicide on Christmas Eve in 2008.

Ruth said that she and her husband took Ambien and Klonopin, not mixing it with alcohol because they were afraid to vomit the pills.

In an interview with Morley Safer of CBS News, she said:

“I don’t know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening. We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said ‘…I just can’t go on anymore. We took pills and woke up the next day… It was very impulsive and I am glad we woke up.”

Bernie, 73, is currently serving a 150-year sentence for fraud in a federal prison in North Carolina.

Just recently, their daughter-in-law Stephanie released a book showing how angry she is with the Madoffs.

Do you believe this story that the couple attempted suicide together?

Bernie and Ruth Madoff Attempted Suicide Together (Woke Up Alive the Following Day) is a post from: The Inquisitr

As Bernie Madoff brags of a safe and almost pleasant prison experience, people outside continue to suffer from his lengthy con- including the widow of Madoff’s son, Mark.

After the scandal, Mark Madoff was unable to make peace with his father’s crimes. Two years after Madoff’s massive fraud was revealed, Mark died by his own hand in his SoHo apartment as his young son slept nearby. That was last December, and Mark’s widow Stephanie Madoff Mack has released a book detailing her pain after the loss of her husband and the disgrace the family had experienced following the scandal.

“The End Of Normal: A Wife’s Anguish, A Widow’s New Life,” out this week, reveals salacious details about both Bernie Madoff and wife Ruth, including the former’s poor boundaries with both family and employees and the latter’s strange eating habits and sordid family history. Madoff Mack says Bernie reached out to her after Mark’s death- adding she’d “spit in his face” if she met him again- and defended himself in the wake of the tragedy, saying:

“I realize that my pain will never take away the loss and suffering that you and the children feel… Stephanie, I can understand your hatred and anger towards me. Nothing I can say will probably change this.

“However I feel I must say some things to you. It is clear that you have bought into the media’s characterization of me. I know that you can’t believe it was ever my intention to hurt my family.”

In an ABC interview ahead of her book launch, Madoff Mack recounts how her calculating father-in-law “stood there in the corner at [her] wedding watching everyone dance, and he knew that everyone in that room was going to get screwed.” Stephanie also says she holds the elder Madoff “fully responsible” for Mark’s death. 

Bernie Madoff’s Son’s Widow Would ‘Spit in His Face’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Jewish Association for Services for the Aged in New York City is being sued by the liquidator for Bernard L. Madoff’s trust, claiming that the company accepted $5.2 million in fictitious profit that they received from Madoff’s Ponzi scheme over a six year period.

Fund trustee Irving Picard is no stranger to suing company’s in order to collect money received from the Ponzi scheme, in September he sued the owners of the New York Mets to claim back $1 billion. Judge Jed Rakoff in the Mets lawsuit cut that sum by two-thirds, claiming that he could only take back money received in the last two years.

In the Jewish Association lawsuit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York Picard claims that the trust is entitled to six years of transfers under bankruptcy and New York Law.

In his complaint Picard argued:

“The trustee is entitled to a judgment against defendant avoiding and preserving the six year transfers.”

In the meantime association president David Warren has not commented on the case or the money transfers at this time.

More information about the filing can be found in the case: Picard v. Jewish Association, 11-ap-02773, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Do you think associations such as the one listed in this article should be forced to pay back money they may not have known was from illegal sources?

Madoff Trustee Files $5.2 Million Lawsuit Against Jewish Association is a post from: The Inquisitr

Convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff has lost yet another thing during his lengthy incarceration for the complicated, long con he ran on investors that cost many their life savings.

Wife Ruth has not been to visit her jailed spouse at all this year, and sources with inside information on the Madoff family say the suicide of son Mark in December was the turning point for Ruth. Just after Mark’s body was discovered around Christmas in his downtown Manhattan apartment- where he had been staying alone with his toddler, who was unharmed- a lawyer for the younger Madoff said in a statement his client was an “innocent victim of his father’s monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo.”

It appears that Ruth’s abandonment of Bernie is a last-ditch effort to salvage her relationship with her remaining son while she can. A Madoff biographer commented on Mrs. Madoff’s decision and said that Ruth’s dedication to her husband was the cause of strife between the not-jailed Madoffs. Diana Henriques, author of Bernie Madoff: The Wizard of Lies said:

“Ruth has not seen Bernie since Mark’s suicide and I think the remnants of the family will now pull together… Ruth visiting him in prison was a major impediment to her being reconciled with them.”

The Madoffs have been married for 52 years. Bernie Madoff met his wife in high school in the fifties, and the pair married in 1959. Bernie Madoff is now 73, and serving a 150 year long sentence in a North Carolina prison.

Madoff Dumped by Wife Ruth, Not Divorced Though is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jailed investment ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff likely won’t see freedom before his death, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a piece of him, that is if you don’t mind that piece being his pants, which have been turned into rather expensive “Madoff Pants iPad covers.”

An enterprising company purchased various pairs of Madoff’s clothing at a U.S. Marshall auction in 2010 and turned them into iPad cases.

The buyer, Frederick James is known for using “rescued fabrics” in his work and this time those “rescued fabrics” include:

• Banana Republic Gavin Khaki
• Ralph Lauren Polo Blue Khaki
• Mason’s Off White Khaki
• J. Crew Khaki

Bernie Madoff pants iPad covers come in various colors and will cost you a minimum of $250. For that price the company says of the J. Crew cover:

This cover is made from an off-white pair of 100% cotton J. Crew pants, size 34 x 30. They are lined in yellow double-knit wool.

Only 4 iPad covers were produced from this pair of pants. Each cover is unique. Two of the covers have original pockets from the pants, one with the J. Crew logo.

Unlike Madoff’s empire the pants are made in the U.S. from something that actually exists. Also just like Madoff the cases will not protect their investors from anything and are only meant to be used to show off the opulence of the idea.

Obviously the entire idea of the Bernie Madoff pants covers are to capitalize on the infamy of Madoff’s name, but when it comes down to it, the cases are really a nice way to recycle something that could easily have been thrown away.

Bernie Madoff Pants Now Available As Expensive iPad Covers is a post from: The Inquisitr

We know it’s called Untitled and it’s written by Anonymous (not that Anonymous), but all else is a mystery about a new book that’s creating a frick-ton of buzz in the literary world.

A brief description of the late fall release indicates little about the book, mainly mentioning that the book will be centered on a “controversial,” real-life person (thought to be Bernie Madoff):

“Untitled,” by Anonymous, was described as a 320-page, nonfiction, hardcover book with photos that will retail at $26.99. Order the book now, the publisher said, to ensure delivery by its November release date.

It is, the e-mail said, “the inside story of life with one of the most controversial figures of our time.”

Of course, the buzz surrounding the tome tends to be a bit hyperbolic- the New York Times identifies two likely authors for the book, one of whom won’t comment without publisher permission. Catherine Hooper and Laurie Sandell are thought to have written the mysterious title, the former being the “mysterious, dark haired fiancee” of Bernie Madoff’s son Andrew Madoff.

“Untitled” by Anonymous is due out smack in the middle of November, and one bookseller spoke to the NYT about the shadowy release:

“There’s nothing to guess with,” said Mark LaFramboise, a buyer for Politics and Prose, an independent store in Washington. “I can’t even get mad at it, I just think it’s so funny.”

Does the lack of information make you more interested in what the book may be about?

‘Untitled’ by Anonymous Book Compels Literary Guessing Game, Creates Buzz is a post from: The Inquisitr

As we reported back in 2008, actor Kevin Bacon and his actress-wife Kyra Sedgwick were the victims of Bernie Madoff’s massive $50 billion Ponzi scheme that, according to rumor, left them with “very little”. According to a recent interview, however, it seems that Kevin Bacon and his family are recovering from the ordeal quite nicely.

“I’m not going to say it didn’t have its emotional downsides,” Bacon told Details magazine regarding the scheme. “”But we’re both young, and we both had the ability to work and roll up our sleeves and start putting the pieces back together. The truth is that we went through it together.”

The couple never made it public just how much of their money was lost in the scheme, but he did reveal to Howard Stern on his Sirius XM show recently that a “lot of money” was lost — precisely how much he didn’t say.

“It’s fine,” he told Stern. “So you have a moment where you go, ‘Holy (expletive), that was many, many years of work just went away in a poof of smoke.’ And then you go, ‘Hang on, we’re okay. We’re looking at each other, we got a nice apartment, our kids are healthy. There’s other people who had it a lot worse. We can both work.’”

In a twist of irony, Bacon has already requested to play himself in the future Biopic that is due for production with Robert DeNiro signed up to play Madoff.  DeNiro and Bacon first appeared together in the film Sleepers and Kevin told The Sun:

“How great would it be if I could play myself and make an appearance and get a chance to work with Bob again?”

Meanwhile Bacon is moving forward with his latest role  in the upcoming ­X-Men: First Class, a film based on Marvel’s X-Men universe set in the 1960s. Kevin Bacon plays the role of villain Sebastian Shaw in the movie. When asked if he chooses to be cast into the role of the bad guy each time this is what he said.

I never go, “Oh, I want to do it because he’s the bad guy.” I can’t stand badly written bad guys or guys who are just miserable pricks. The character in Super is just such a sociopath, I found it amusing. And Jean-Claude Van Damme had been offered the part. To pick up Jean-Claude Van Damme’s rejects was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

Madoff, now 73, has been serving his 150-year prison sentence for the scheme since 2009.

Kevin Bacon, Ponzi Scheme Victim, Talks Moving Forward is a post from: The Inquisitr

The more I read about the Wilpon family (owners of he New York Mets) and Bernie Madoff (one time Wall Street Hustler) the more I think of an onion. The more we peel this back the more it stinks. Seriously the Wilpon’s have tried to position themselves as victims of this mess, but it looks like that may have been far more involved and I cannot wait for the government to seek money from them and to be frank for a real owner to own one of the better franchises in baseball history.

Not only was Bernie Madoof intimately involved with the business side of the New York Mets, but the Wilpon family relied on him and possibly even steered clients his way. I am no lawyer but I think there is a word for this, ahh yes co-conspirator. There are some reports out there that the Wilpon’s steered friends and Mets employees to Madoff. Either they are clueless about money or they were in on it.

Without a doubt the Wilpon family has had its financial health affected by their involvement with Madoof. However, they have tried to sell us on the fact that the Mets finances would be affected. If all of this is true, there is no way that the Mets finances have not been affected. Really what all of this means the Mets are a mess, and probably need new ownership to get the ship righted.

I already know how this will end for the Mets, and that is at some point they will be sold. However I do not now how all of this will play out for members of the Wilpon family who may have been far more involved in this scam than we realize.

Related Links:

• New York Mets news and notes
• The Business of Major League Baseball
• Joshua Lobdell.com

The Wilpon’s are hardly victims of the Madoff scheme is a post from: The Inquisitr

Th 46-year-old elder son of fraudster Bernie Madoff was found dead earlier this morning, hanging from a pipe in his Mercer Street apartment in Manhattan.

Mark Madoff, alone in the SoHo home with his two-year-old son, had hanged himself from a pipe on the two-year anniversary of the revelation of his father’s massive fraud. Madoff was discovered just before 7:30 this morning by his father-in-law after his wife, Stephanie, received cryptic e-mails saying he loved her and to send someone to look after their small son. The child was found unharmed in the apartment.

A lawyer for Mark Madoff said his client was another innocent victim of his father’s now infamous investment scheme:

“It’s a terrible and unnecessary tragedy,” said Mark Madoff’s lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum.

“Mark was an innocent victim of his father’s monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo.”

Mark and his brother Andrew were sued again this week in Manhattan by trustees for the victims of Bernie Madoff’s scheme, in an attempt to recover funds thought to have been transferred to Madoff family members.

Mark Madoff, son of ponzi schemer Bernie, dead in suicide is a post from: The Inquisitr

Disgraced financier and ponzi swindler Bernie Madoff has been hospitalized at Duke University for serious injuries consistent with an assault, ABC is reporting.

Madoff, 71, was treated for facial fractures, broken ribs and a collapsed lung on Tuesday. Officials at Butner federal prison refused to confirm the report, but Butner spokesperson Cathy Elsea admitted that Madoff had been hopsitalized within the prison. Elsea refused to elaborate on the move to the prison wing:

“The potential reasons for an inmate to transfer are numerous,” Elsea told ABC News, “and we do not release those specific reasons.”

Madoff’s scheme collapsed last year in early December, and his arrest came a day after he told his sons that his entire business was a “big lie.” He has been incarcerated since July at Butner, a prison described as “one of the crown jewels of the federal prison system” and as being reminiscent of a college campus. White collar criminals are often sent to the facility, but Madoff’s fellow inmates also include a Colombo crime family boss and the man behind the 1993 WTC bombing.

Bernie Madoff suspected victim of prison assault is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ruth Madoff was escorted from her posh Manhattan penthouse today by federal marshals, the New York Daily News is reporting.

Mrs. Madoff, who has reverted to her maiden name Alpern in an unsuccessful bid to find an apartment, reportedly surrendered all the property inside. Five federal marshals took possession of the home just before noon today and are in the process of cataloguing its contents. Ruth has lived in the $7m Upper East Side Duplex for decades with her husband, Bernie Madoff, who is currently serving a sentence of 150 years for his infamous Ponzi scheme.

Ruth Madoff relinquished all claim to the $70m in funds that were in her name, and denied any knowledge of her husband’s schemes. Don’t feel too bad for her, in case you were going to- she was allowed to keep $2.5m in cash in the deal she cut with the Justice Department.

Ruth Madoff now homeless is a post from: The Inquisitr

US Marshals seized ponzi master Bernard Madoff’s 1969 Rybovich Yacht and a smaller boat in Florida Wednesday as part of an ongoing effort to pay back some of the money lost by former Madoff investors.

The 55-foot 1969 Rybovich Yacht called “Bull” is worth $2.2 million, and was described by a Government spokesman as being “extremely well kept, extremely clean [and the] engine compartment was spotless. It looked like somebody took a bottle of 409 and scrubbed it every day.”

Court documents indicate that Madoff and his wife had up to $826 million in assets at the end of 2008, including the boat. Prosecutors are attempting to seize all of Madoff’s assets.

Bernie Madoff’s 1969 Rybovich Yacht seized by US Marshals is a post from: The Inquisitr

The US Securities and Exchange Commission this morning raided Texas based Stanford Financial Group over an alleged $8 billion fraud.

The SEC accuses founder and CEO of Stanford Financial Robert Allen Stanford, CFO James M. Davis, and Chief Investment Officer Laura Pendergest-Holt with misrepresenting the safety and liquidity of uninsured certificates of deposits (CDs).

Stanford Financial, and its subsidiaries sold $8 billion of CDs to investors by “promising improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates,” the SEC said in a statement.

Further, the SEC alleges that Stanford falsely claimed that the deposits were safe, that more than 20 analysts monitor the investments, and that yearly audits were being conducted.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor entered a temporary restraining order on the accused, froze the defendants assets, and appointed a receiver to manage those assets.

Other allegations include Stanford claiming to investors that the company had no exposure to Bernie Madoff scam, when the company did, and further that Stanford Capital Management (another Stanford subsidiary) inflated the performance of its $1.2 billion-asset Stanford Allocation Strategy mutual fund in promoting it to prospective investors.

The alleged fraud if proven would be one of the largest frauds by a money manager in US history.

Stanford Financial Group raided over alleged $8 billion fraud is a post from: The Inquisitr

Madoff Investors: The Full List

The names on the Madoff client list include such well-known people as actor John Malkovitch, talk show host Larry King, pitcher Sandy Koufax, New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, and Madoff’s own lawyer, Ira Sorkin.

It’s worth noting that the Madoff client list does include anyone who responded to ads related to the firm’s bankruptcy, so they may not all be actual victims.

You can download or view the entire list of Madoff investors here (PDF).

Madoff Client List: See All the Investors-Turned-Victims is a post from: The Inquisitr