Now it’s a full-fledged family affair.
With the feds already going after the cash and assets held by Bernard Madoff’s wife and sons, the trustee liquidating the scammer’s business is investigating “possible claims” against his brother, Peter.
The probe involves unspecified amounts “transferred to” Peter Madoff from his brother’s securities firm, wrote a lawyer for bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard. Peter worked for the firm.
The action is part of Picard’s efforts to identify all of Bernard Madoff’s corporate assets to divide among victims of his $65 billion fraud, wrote the lawyer, Marc Hirschfield.
Part of that job is selling off Bernie’s Mets tickets. The ducats had a face value of more than $80,000, but Picard cut a deal with the team to trade them for less-expensive, more easily saleable tickets, with the difference going into the victims’ money pool.
Picard’s probe of Peter Madoff was revealed in a letter prompted by a suit brought by 22-year-old law student Andrew Samuels over the loss of his $480,000 trust fund, which Peter turned over to Bernie.
Hirschfield warned that any money won by Samuels, who got a court-ordered freeze on Peter Madoff’s assets, could be divided among all Madoff victims.
Samuels’ lawyer, Steven Schlesinger, said going after his client “would run afoul of the general principles of equity and fairness of the Bankruptcy Court.” With Post Wire Services