Beam Me Up
You may have read that recently that Picard is continuing to fight the good fight for recent victims. It’s been in all the papers. I don’t mean Jean Luc Picard, the Star Trek captain played by British actor Patrick Stewart. I’m talking about Irving Picard, the court appointed trustee who has the unenviable task of trying to recover monies for the victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme- the scam that will ultimately make Madoff the King of All Scams if it hasn’t already.
But in a curious decision this week, investors who cashed out before Madoff’s $65 billion dollar scam was discovered, were told they may have to return what they took out (www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/04/25/2009-04-25) In recent weeks, according to the article, the Federal Bankruptcy Court trustee in charge of hunting down Madoff’s assets sent out 223 letters to investors seeking the return of as much as $735 million. The so-called "clawback" could impact investors who cashed out as long as six years before the collapse. "These amounts were paid to you at the expense of other customers while [Madoff's firm] was insolvent," read a letter to an investor from Trustee Irving Picard.
Can you imagine? Theoretically, the investor who received a check from Madoff in June of 2004, long before there was a hint of a scam, will have to pony up said check. I assume that he in return will dun the BMW dealer who took a portion of that ill-gotten money as payment for a car. The car dealer will dun the house painter who received a portion of these illegal funds in exchange for a coat of paint on the dealer’s residence. The house painter will attempt to get a portion of that money back from his wife’s father who used it to but a couple of tickets for a Mets game. And on and on. Until Hi ho the dairy-o, the cheese stands alone.
Once again, reality is far stranger than fiction. Nothing that Jean Luc Picard had to deal with on any planet in any galaxy, could have prepared him for the intricacies of this real life Pandora’s box. “The effect of these letters is to scare the living daylights out of people who have already been victimized once by Bernard Madoff," said lawyer Jonathan Landers, who represents several victims.
Yeah, no kidding.
By Myron Gushlak