US Supreme Court says Madoff trustee can pursue money that went overseas

The US Supreme Court is leaving in place a ruling that allows the trustee recovering money for investors in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme to pursue more than $4 billion that went to overseas investors.

The high court on Monday declined to get involved in the case. As is usual, the justices did not comment in turning away the case.

An appeals court said the trustee, Irving Picard, could go after money that went through foreign investment funds back to foreign investors. A lower court had said those transactions were beyond the reach of US law.

In this December 17, 2010, photo, Irving Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act Trustee, left, is joined by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara during a news conference, in New York. (AP/Mary Altaffer)

Picard has sought nearly $100 million from Israeli institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Sheba Medical Center. He says they received money from the Israel-based Yeshaya Horowitz Association, which knew at the time that Madoff’s New York investment firm was perpetrating a fraud.

Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He admitted swindling thousands of clients out of billions of dollars in investments over decades. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

The court-appointed trustee has recovered approximately $14 billion of about $18 billion that investors put into Madoff’s business.

— with AP

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