Monday, March 19, 2012

Mets Owners Settle Willful Blindness Case

Just as jury selection was about to begin, the New York Mets owners have opted to settle the $303 million lawsuit against them.  While the article is a bit unclear, I believe the settlement amount of $162 million is in addition to the $83 million in fictitious profits that the Mets owners already had to return per a ruling by Judge Rakoff.  

In essence, the Mets owners were accused of ignoring clear red flags that Bernie Madoff was committing fraud because Madoff's consistent returns benefitted their business.  The settlement isn't that surprising, given Judge Rakoff's recent ruling that the Mets owners needed to prove that they acted in good faith and had no reason to suspect Madoff was committing fraud in addition to Picard appearing to have at least one very compelling witness against the Mets owners.

While it would have been interesting to see the case go to trial, it's good to see some consequences come to those who appeared to have ignored evidence of fraud because they benefitted from the fraud.

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