Judge Grants Dismissal of Madoff Trustee's Common Law Claims Against Bank Austria

When Judge Jed S. Rakoff recently granted the dismissal of Irving Picard's common-law claims against HSBC, included in the order was an innocuous footnote at the bottom of page 25 stating that "Although it seems clear that these claims would also have to  be dismissed against any other defendants who appeared and so moved, no other such defendant has so moved."  In the ensuing days, several of the other banking institutions sued by Picard obliged, including JP Morgan and Unicredit Bank Austria.

In an order signed Saturday, August 6, and filed on the Court docket the following Monday, Judge Rakoff granted the dismissal of common-law claims asserted by Picard against Unicredit Bank Austria.  As requested by Bank Austria, the previous order dismissing common-law claims against HSBC was ordered amended to include a dismissal of the common-law claims consisting of counts twenty through twenty-four asserted against Bank Austria in Picard's amended complaint.

With this dismissal, the total amount sought by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, continues to decrease.   The amount is set to further decrease should the Court follow its rationale in ruling on JP Morgan's still-pending motion to dismiss similar common-law claims, including treble-damages claims based on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.  

A copy of the Order is here.