Madoff Trustee Files Seven Clawback Lawsuits Against Feeder Fund Investors
The court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities filed seven "clawback" lawsuits seeking the return of at least $173 million from entities that invested in one of the largest feeder funds to Madoff's scheme. Irving Picard, the trustee, filed the suits after previously negotiating a settlement with the feeder fund, Fairfield Sentry, that allowed him to claw back profits from investors who placed funds with Madoff through Fairfield. Last week, Picard filed suit against the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority seeking $300 million from investments with Fairfield.
The lawsuits, termed "clawback" suits, proceed under bankruptcy and state law allowing avoidance of transfers of funds made by Madoff to both initial transferees and any subsequent transferees. According to the complaints, a total of $3 billion was transferred from Madoff to Fairfield during the six-year period preceding BLMIS' bankruptcy filing. The seven entities sued by Picard and amount sought are as follows:
- Concord Management LLC - $10 million
- Parson Finance Panama S.A. - First Gulf Bank - $11.1 million
- Lion Global Investors Limited - $50 million
- Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co. Ltd. - $21.8 million
- Quilvest Finance Ltd. - $37.8 million
- Orbita Capital Return Strategy Limited - $30.6 million
The lawsuits were filed by David Sheehan, counsel to Picard.
Each complaint can be found here.