NEW YORK | Many of Bernard Madoff’s victims who thought they lost everything could get at least half their money back after the widow of a Florida philanthropist agreed Friday to return a staggering $7.2 billion that her husband reaped from the giant Ponzi scheme.Federal prosecutors reached the settlement with the estate of Jeffry Picower, a businessman who drowned after suffering a heart attack in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion in October 2009. Picower was the single biggest beneficiary of Madoff’s fraud.U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the forfeiture the largest in Justice Department history and a “game changer” for those swindled by Madoff. He commended Picower’s widow, Barbara, “for agreeing to turn over this truly staggering sum, which really was always other people’s money.”
Barbara Picower said in a statement: “We will return every penny received from almost 35 years of investing with Bernard Madoff. I believe the Madoff Ponzi scheme was deplorable, and I am deeply saddened by the tragic impact it continues to have on the lives of its victims. It is my hope that this settlement will ease that suffering.”
The settlement means roughly half of the $20 billion that investors entrusted to Madoff has now been recovered, authorities said.
The $7.2 billion eclipses by far the deals reached with other defendants sued by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee who is recovering victims’ money. The next largest — $625 million — was announced earlier this month in a settlement with Massachusetts businessman and philanthropist Carl Shapiro.
Lawrence Velvel, a law school dean who lost money he had invested with Madoff for decades, said Picower’s widow “did the right thing.”
But he was wary about who, in the end, would benefit more — the multitude of small and midsized investors who had been counting on their investments for their retirement, or the big hedge funds that did business with Madoff.
“It’s going to go to the hedge funds,” he said.
Madoff, 72, is serving a 150-year prison sentence.
发表于 2010-12-18 01:24
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