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.  

Madoff's Dealings with the Mets: Lookin' Shady to Me

The New York Mets have made the news recently but, unfortunately for them, it's not because their spring season is boding well for the rest of the season. Instead, the Mets are finding serious opposition is coming from the trustee in the Madoff case, Irving Picard, who is suing the Mets' owners, the Wilpon and Katz families, for $1 billion.

As it turns out, the Mets may have thought their biggest rivals were  the Yankees or the Phillies, but this year, they may start wondering if Picard is working for one of their rivals. Picard's amended case is 381 pages long and is likely to be a bigger challenge to the organization than any of those teams can muster. From what I can tell, the most potentially damning allegation in the case is Picard's contention that the Mets' owners knew Madoff was accustomed to doing shady business and that he transacted some such business with the owners. Here are some details that may pose a challenge to the owners as stated in a recent NY Times article on the matter:

Winners and Losers in the Madoff Case

Irving Picard

Irving Picard, the trustee in the Madoff case, was in court last week as a panel of three judges heard arguments on whether net winners in the Madoff case ought to be able to collect money from the government. Net winners are those who took more cash out of Madoff's funds than they put in. Apparently, there are several of these guys who think they should get more money. Hmmmm.....

The WSJ had this to say about the case: "The judges' decision is likely to determine which Madoff customers may collect up to $500,000 apiece from the Securities Investor Protection Corp., an industry association created under federal law to insure investors in failed brokerages. It is also expected to affect how to divide billions of dollars Mr. Picard is recovering through legal settlements with people who withdrew money from the Ponzi scheme."

Now, it seems just a bit greedy to me that investors who got more money from Madoff than they put in would also be trying to collect from the taxpayers simply because Madoff sent them a statement showing they had more fictitious profits than they had already withdrawn! Apparently, the judges showed signs of wonder too as the WSJ reported the following:

Bernie Madoff News: NY Mets and JP Morgan Chase

The past week has led to two new stories related to Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme. I'm going to provide a short blurb and a link to an article in case you want to read more.