Apparently not all Madoff victims were victimized equally...

According to a recent article, the trustee in the Madoff case is suing Jeffry M. Picower so as to obtain $5.1 billion that was apparently withdrawn from several accounts from the mid-1990s to 2008. Here is an excerpt:

The trustee says that Mr. Picower made numerous withdrawals from his various Madoff accounts from the mid-1990s to 2008, each time realizing enormous profits that, in several instances, exceeded the returns of other Madoff investors who invested during the same period. Mr. Madoff marketed his investment services as offering consistent annual returns of 10 to 12 percent, but the trustee has identified several people who seemed to have a special deal with Mr. Madoff that ensured them extravagant profits.

Over a dozen times between 1996 and 2007, Mr. Picower’s accounts posted gains of more than 100 percent, the trustee said. One account in 1999 chalked up an annual profit of more than 950 percent. But, Mr. Picower claims the same account records show the account earned a 37.6 percent return in 1999 and none of his accounts ever earned a return of more than 100 percent in any one year.

I'm glad that the trustee seems to be tracking some of the money but I doubt we will ever know where a lot of it ended up..."I'll pay you a 950% return this year but send me 1/2 of it through this Swiss bank account..."