New Madoff Report Says ‘Extensive Additional Litigation’ To Come, Payments To Customers ‘Before The End Of 2010’

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s company and his assets, Irving Picard, has submitted a third interim report to the bankruptcy court, with information as of March 31. There are a lot of interesting tidbits here, including:

·                     The trustee has filed 14 avoidance actions seeking to recover more than $14.8 billion in funds from various feeder funds, Madoff friends and family members and related parties. He anticipates filing “extensive additional litigation.”
·                     The trustee has recovered about $1.5 billion for the benefit of customers. The Trustee “hopes to make an initial pro rata distribution” of  funds already recovered  and  to  be  recovered  “sometime before the end of 2010” to customers whose claims were allowed for amounts that exceed the $500,000 maximum that has been paid from advances made by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.  
·                     As of March 31, 2010, the trustee had determined 12,249 claims, allowed 2,011 customers claims in the total amount of $5.3 billion, and had committed to pay approximately $668 million in SIPC advances, leaving approximately $4.6 billion in “over-the-limits” claims.