U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan seeks to dismiss a claim by an investor in Bernard Madoff’s defunct investment company to part of a $7.2 billion settlement.
U.S. prosecutors and the trustee liquidating Madoff’s firm settled a suit against the estate of billionaire Jeffry Picower for $7.2 billion in December. Asking a Manhattan judge to dismiss the investor’s claim, Bharara said he was seeking a final order of forfeiture to close the case.
The investor holding up closure of the case, Adele Fox, has no “property interest” in the Picower funds and hasn’t yet proved her “victimhood,” Bharara said in the April 15 filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
“Her attempt to have the court mandate the allocation of forfeited funds among victims in advance of that determination is a naked end-run around” legal limitations, he said in the filing.
Investors seeking to recoup money from the Madoff fraud unsuccessfully challenged a $220 million settlement between trustee Irving Picard and the family of Norman F. Levy. A bankruptcy judge ruled on March 30 that the deal will stand.
The main case is Securities Investor Protection Corp. v. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, 08-01789, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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