The tables turn on Madoff victims
TEXT OF STORY
STEVE CHIOTAKIS: The court-appointed trustee who’s trying to recoup money lost in Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme is up against a deadline to file complaints. So far, he’s sued to recover about $32 billion. But some Madoff victims say they’re now the target of these complaints.
Marketplace’s Janet Babin reports.
JANET BABIN: Trustee Irving Picard has filed last minute lawsuits against some of the world’s biggest banks. He says they should have known that Bernie Madoff was defrauding his clients. He’s also filed suits against Madoff family members and, more than 300 of Madoff’s victims.
Like Brian Gerber. He says he lost millions.
BRIAN GERBER: He’s suing us like we were criminals because he says that profits made over the years were fictitious and amounted to more than the money we lost.
The lawsuits are called ‘clawbacks’. They were filed against Madoff customers who over time, withdrew more money from their Madoff accounts than they put in.
Attorney Barry Lax represents about a dozen of these Madoff clients.
BARRY LAX: The trustee is not saying that these victims are somehow compliant in the fraud, so why is he prosecuting these cases?
The Trustee’s office did not return calls seeking comment, but it has said it won’t pursue claims against Madoff clients with known hardships.
In New York, I’m Janet Babin for Marketplace.
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