Madoff Ponzi Scheme

Ex-Madoff Aide Will Help Picard Find Funds Stolen in Ponzi Scheme

Published on: August 31, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Annette Bongiorno has settled a civil case brought against her over the millions of dollars she and her husband received from managing Bernard Madoff’s investment advisory business and their investments with him. Her job under Madoff was to manage customer accounts. Prosecutors accused Bongiorno of making false securities trades. Now, she is serving a six-year-prison term for her role in Madoff’s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scam.

As part of the settlement, Bongiorno is obligated to help trustee Irving Picard recover funds stolen from investors as he continues to liquidate Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. To date, he has recovered or arrived at deals to recover $11.2B of the over $17B in principal that was stolen. Investors have gotten back almost $9.5B.

In addition to making herself available to Picard in his ongoing recovery efforts, Bongiorno must, when requested, provide testimony at deposition or trial. Picard, who is the one that sued her for over $22M, will drop the case as long as she continues to cooperate. As part of the settlement, she must pay $3.9M of stock from an account under her husband’s name.

Madoff Ponzi Scam Victims Recover Over $10 Billion

Published on: December 5, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Six years after the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scam, over $10 billion has been recovered—that’s close to 60% of the principal that went missing after his arrest in 2008. Nearly $6 billion has been paid back to investors. Trustee Irving Picard recently provided these figures in an interim report.

Thousands of investors lost $17.5 billion in principal because of Madoff’s scheme. Even as a significant amount of the money has been returned to them, billions of dollars are being kept in reserve until the securities fraud lawsuits filed by victims wanting bigger payouts are resolved.

The Securities Investor Protection Corp. has spent over $1 billion to facilitate the recovery process. Picard was tasked with recovering investors’ funds. He has worked with forensic accountants, lawyers, and others to figure out who was owed money and who should be sued for benefiting from Madoff’s Ponzi scam. He has even able to recover investor funds via hundreds of lawsuits involving the Madoff clients and banks that didn’t know they were benefiting from the fraud.

DOJ’s Fund for Madoff Victims Has Received 51,700 Claims Worth $40B

Published on: May 14, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to Richard C. Breeden, who is overseeing the US Department of Justice’s Madoff Victim Fund, he has received some 51,700 claims worth approximately $40 billion from Ponzi scam victims seeking to recover their losses. That amount is three times more than the claims submitted during the bankruptcy proceedings for Bernard L. Madoff’s firm.

The fund is responsible for giving back $4 billion in forfeited assets to claimants, including those who were indirectly impacted by the Madoff Ponzi scam, such as ” feeder funds,” banks, hedge funds, and other entities that trustee Irving Picard has denied recovery. Picard is only compensating direct investors who were harmed.

Breeden says that the amount of investors seeking recovery are twice as many as previously estimated and their claimed losses are billions of dollars greater than what was documented. Prior to an April 30 deadline, he received over 43,500 claims from those who did not submit to the bankruptcy case. More than 36,000 claims were from those who said they haven’t gotten any of their losses back.