Bernie’s battered victims are getting a little more payback.
A whopping $2.5 billion was mailed out yesterday to burned investors of Ponzi King Bernie Madoff — the biggest distribution yet.
Nearly four years after Madoff confessed to masterminding the biggest fraud in history, the trustee tasked with cleaning up his mess, Irving Picard, sent out $2.5 billion worth of checks to thousands of account holders, he said yesterday.
The payout represents about 14 percent of the $17.3 billion lost in the scam.
Together with an earlier payout of $1.1 billion, the total payout so far to victims is roughly 21 percent.
In all, Picard has recovered or is in position to recover about roughly $9.15 billion, or 52 percent of all losses.
While far from a full recovery, the latest distribution is nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, the average check will be worth more than $2 million, Picard said.
The biggest check is worth a whopping $526.8 million, he said.
The identities of the victims getting the checks was not disclosed.
“While this progress is extremely gratifying, we will not cease our work to continue recovering assets,” Picard said in a statement announcing the distributions. “And we will make additional distributions as soon as practicable.”
Much of the $9 billion-plus in recoveries is tied up in legal disputes.
Picard also continues to try to rack up his coffers with dozens of clawback lawsuits, including several against big banks like HSBC and UBS and several of Madoff’s family members.
All the legal wrangling has investors wondering when the next distribution might come, said Joseph Sarachek, who buys victims’ Madoff claims for CRT Capital Group.
The uncertainty around the next round of distributions could see prices for claims to fall, said Sarachek, who says claims have been trading for around 68 cents on the dollar.
Barry Mikelberg, who buys claims for Triax Capital Advisors, said he also expects a flood of selling because investors just don’t want to wait around anymore.
“Now that they’re getting this distribution, I expect a lot of sellers,” said Mikelberg, who hopes to buy “another $100 million” in claims by year end.