Seventeenth Pro Rata Interim Distribution of Recovered Funds to Madoff Claims Holders Commences Totaling More Than $253 Million

Distribution Will Bring Aggregate Customer Payout in Madoff Liquidation to Nearly $15.38 Billion

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, DC – February 27, 2026 – Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), announced that the seventeenth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to eligible BLMIS customers commenced today.

The SIPA Trustee is distributing more than $253 million on a pro rata basis to BLMIS account holders with allowed claims. Including today’s distribution, the aggregate amount sent to eligible BLMIS customers will total nearly $15.38 billion, which includes approximately $850.9 million in advances made by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). The seventeenth interim distribution represents 1.302% percent of each allowed claim and will be paid on claims relating to 768 accounts.

Approximately 72.848 percent of each customer’s allowed claim will have now been paid when combined with the prior 16 distributions in aggregate, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. In addition to the seventeen distributions totaling approximately 72.848% of the allowed claim amount, eligible customers received advances from SIPC of up to $500,000 per allowed claim. Following the seventeenth distribution, 1,547 accounts with claims up to $1.824 million will be fully satisfied out of the 2,291 accounts with allowed claims.

The seventeenth pro rata interim distribution was reached as a result of settlements and litigation since the last interim distribution in February 2025. The average payment for an allowed claim in the seventeenth interim distribution totals $330,187.37. The smallest payment totals $70.03 and the largest payment is $31,868,892.88.

“The seventeenth interim distribution is another pivotal step forward for our recovery efforts,” said Mr. Picard. “Thanks to the support of SIPC and my legal team led by David Sheehan, eligible BLMIS customers have now received approximately 72.848 percent of their allowed claims from the seventeen interim distributions, plus advances from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation of up to $500,000 per allowed claim.”

“We are pleased that the Madoff Recovery Initiative has resulted in another substantial distribution,” said David J. Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “We anticipate achieving additional recoveries through litigation and settlements and we look forward to more good news in the future for eligible BLMIS customers.”

As of January 31, 2026, and since his appointment in December 2008, the SIPA Trustee has amassed approximately $15.366 billion as a result of recoveries and settlement agreements.

Subject to Court approval, 100 percent of the SIPA Trustee’s recoveries are allocated to the Customer Fund for distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. None of the money recovered is used to pay administrative costs. All Trustee, legal and accounting fees, as well as administrative expenses, are paid by SIPC.

More information on overall recoveries to date and the liquidation can be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website: www.madofftrustee.com.

Messrs. Picard and Sheehan would like to thank Seanna Brown and Heather Wlodek of BakerHostetler, who worked on the seventeenth pro rata interim distribution and its related filings, as well as BakerHostetler, Windels Marx, and all of the attorneys and professionals whose work has led to the distribution. They would also like to thank Vineet Sehgal and his colleagues at AlixPartners, as well as the personnel at SIPC, for their ongoing work and participation in the Madoff Recovery Initiative distributions.

Created by Congress, SIPC was established as a nonprofit under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970. It was tasked with creating and administering a fund that would be used to restore investors’ missing assets in the event of a brokerage firm failure. Since 1971, through 330 liquidation proceedings, SIPC has distributed more than $142 billion for the benefit of more than 773,000 investors who otherwise might have lost their life savings.

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel: 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – January 21, 2025 – The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation to the BLMIS Customer Fund and authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the sixteenth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced on December 11, 2024, with today’s court approval, the SIPA Trustee will allocate more than $101 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with more than $35.8 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims.  

This sixteenth pro rata interim distribution, when combined with the prior fifteen distributions, will equal at least 71.327 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total approximately $14.54 billion, which includes advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). All allowed customer claims up to $1.741 million will be fully satisfied after the distribution. The distribution is expected to commence by late February. 

The Sixteenth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (LGB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the December 11, 2024 press release:

https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/001370-final-sixteenth-allocation-press-release.pdf

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Madoff Trustee Requests Allocation of More Than $101 Million to Customer Fund and Court Approval to Distribute More Than $35 Million to BLMIS Customers with Allowed Claims

Sixteenth Pro Rata Interim Distribution Will Bring Aggregate Customer Payout in Madoff Liquidation to Nearly $14.54 Billion

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, DC – December 11, 2024 – Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), filed a motion today in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York seeking approval for an allocation of more than $101 million in recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and an authorization for a sixteenth pro rata interim distribution of more than $35.8 million from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. A hearing on the motion has been scheduled for January 29, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. EST.

The proposed sixteenth pro rata interim distribution is the result of approximately $101.7 million in settlements and recoveries achieved by the SIPA Trustee and the legal teams since the last interim distribution in February 2024. 

“We’re pleased to be in a position to make another distribution to Madoff customers with allowed claims,” said Josephine Wang, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). “Thanks to the dedication of the SIPA Trustee and his legal team, in cooperation with SIPC’s legal team, we are continuing to recover funds for victims of the Madoff fraud.”

“Once this latest distribution is made, 1,523 accounts will be made whole, which is beyond all expectation at the onset of our work,” said Mr. Picard. “Our legal team, led by David Sheehan, has been working tirelessly to explore every avenue for recoveries, and we thank SIPC for its ongoing support of our efforts.”

“Our work is continuing in many jurisdictions worldwide, and we are optimistic that significant recoveries still lie ahead,” said David J. Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “I would also like to personally thank my team members for their hard work over the last 16 years.”

Sixteenth Distribution Will Bring Total Amount Restored to Nearly $14.54 Billion

When combined with the prior fifteen distributions, the sixteenth distribution will equal 71.327% percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total approximately $14.54 billion, including approximately $850.4 million in advances committed by SIPC. 

As of October 31, 2024, the SIPA Trustee has recovered or reached agreements to recover approximately $14.709 billion. This recovery far exceeds any prior restitution effort related to Ponzi schemes both in terms of dollars and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

The proposed distribution will be paid on claims relating to 769 BLMIS accounts and represents approximately 0.191% of their net equity claims, with an average payment amount of $46,556.21. When combined with the previous fifteen distributions and $850.4 million in advances committed by SIPC, 1,523 accounts with an allowed claim amount of up to $1.741 million will be fully satisfied following the sixteenth interim distribution.

No funds recovered in the Madoff Recovery Initiative are used to pay costs associated with the recovery. All trustee, legal, and accounting fees, as well as administrative expenses, are paid by SIPC.

The Sixteenth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (CGM). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at: www.madofftrustee.com.

Ms. Wang and Messrs. Picard and Sheehan would like to thank Seanna Brown and Heather Wlodek of BakerHostetler, who worked on the sixteenth pro rata interim distribution and its related filings, as well as BakerHostetler, Windels Marx and all of the attorneys and professionals whose work has led to the distribution. They would also like to thank Vineet Sehgal and his colleagues at AlixPartners, as well as Michael Post, Kevin H. Bell, Nathanael Kelley, Nicholas Hallenbeck, and their colleagues at SIPC, for their ongoing work and participation in the Madoff Recovery Initiative distributions.

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – January 23, 2024 – The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation to the BLMIS Customer Fund and authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the fifteenth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced on December 8, 2023, with today’s court approval, the SIPA Trustee will allocate more than $66 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with more than $45.23 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims.

This fifteenth pro rata interim distribution, when combined with the prior fourteen distributions, will equal at least 70.959 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total more than $14.43 billion, which includes advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). All allowed customer claims up to $1,707,339.85 will be fully satisfied after the distribution. The distribution is expected to commence by late February.

The Fifteenth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (CGM). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the December 8, 2023 press release: https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/001289-fifteenth-allocation-and-distribution-press-release-vf.pdf

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – January 10, 2023 – The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation to the BLMIS Customer Fund and authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the fourteenth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced on December 9, 2022, with today’s court approval, the SIPA Trustee will allocate more than $44 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with more than $33 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims. The distribution includes the release of a $14.5 million general reserve that was previously allocated to the Customer Fund and held for unknown contingencies.

This fourteenth pro rata interim distribution, when combined with the prior thirteen distributions, will equal at least 70.630 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total more than $14.36 billion, which includes advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). All allowed customer claims up to $1,701,900.07 will be fully satisfied after the distribution. The distribution is expected to commence by late February.

The Fourteenth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (CGM). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the December 9, 2022 Press Release: https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/001219-press-release-fourteenth-allocation-and-distribution-vff.pdf

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – January 11, 2022 – The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation to the BLMIS Customer Fund and authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the thirteenth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced on December 10, 2021, with today’s court approval, the SIPA Trustee will allocate more than $128 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with more than $85 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims. The distribution includes the release of $10.5 million of a general reserve of $25 million that was previously allocated to the Customer Fund and held for unknown contingencies.

This thirteenth pro rata interim distribution, when combined with the prior twelve distributions, will equal at least 70.307 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total nearly $14.25 billion, which includes advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). All allowed customer claims up to $1,682,000.00 will be fully satisfied after the distribution. The distribution is expected to commence by late February.

The Thirteenth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (CGM). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the December 10, 2021 Press Release: https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/001143-press-release-thirteenth-allocation-and-distribution-final.pdf

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – January 19, 2021 – The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation of more than $74 million in recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and has authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the twelfth pro rata interim distribution of more than $190 million from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced, with today’s court approval, the SIPA Trustee will allocate more than $74 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with more than $190 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims. The distribution includes the release of $175 million of a general reserve of $200 million that was previously allocated to the Customer Fund and held for unknown contingencies.

This twelfth pro rata interim distribution, when combined with the prior eleven distributions, will equal at least 69.630 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total more than $14.12 billion, which includes advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). All allowed customer claims up to $1,645,761.48 will be fully satisfied after the distribution. The distribution is expected to commence by late February.

The Twelfth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the December 9, 2020 Press Release: https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/001058-press-release-twelfth-allocation-and-distribution-vf.pdf

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Statement from Irving H. Picard, the Court-appointed trustee for
the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC

New York, NY. February 6, 2009. Irving H. Picard, the court-appointed Trustee for the
liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (“BLMIS”), today announced that
because the Trustee and his staff have received numerous questions in letters, e-mails, voice
messages, media inquiries about certain topics on a recurring basis, the Trustee will address
these topics in a series of postings under the heading “Frequently Asked Questions” or FAQs,
which will be posted to the Trustee’s website, www.madofftrustee.com. The frequency of new
postings will vary. The first two web postings follow.

July 2, 2009 – Last Date for Claims To Be Received by Trustee

New York, NY. February 6, 2009. Claims will not be timely filed unless received on or
before July 2, 2009 by Irving H. Picard, the court-appointed Trustee for the liquidation of
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC (BLMIS) at Claims Processing Center, 2100
McKinney Ave., Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75201. July 2, 2009 is the SIPA statutory bar date.

Contrary to misinformation published by unofficial sources, March 4, 2009 is not the last
date to file customer claims. That date is more about how claims are paid. Claims not filed by
the March 4, 2009 date, pursuant to the Bankruptcy Court’s Order of December 23, 2008, “need
not be paid in whole or in part out of customer property” and, if paid from SIPC advances, the
Trustee has the option to pay “in cash or securities (or both) [which he] determines is most
economical to the estate.”

Thus, claimants should get claims in as soon as possible, but remember get them
received on or before July 2, 2009. Neither the Bankruptcy Court nor the Trustee can
extend this deadline.

Administrative Costs of the SIPA Liquidation
Will Not Be Paid From Customer Property

New York, NY. February 6, 2009. Contrary to inaccurate news reports, the costs of
administration are not going to be paid out of any property being recovered by the Trustee for
the benefit of customers.

At the Court hearing on February 4, 2009, the Trustee reported that he had recovered
about $111.4 million in cash and about $300 million (market value – 1/26/09) in securities. After
the hearing, the Court entered orders by which the Trustee has additionally received about $535
million. Thus, to date the Trustee has gathered assets with an approximate total value of
$946.4 million. It is the Trustee’s and SIPC’s intention that, subject to future Court Order, he will
allocate this amount, and future recoveries for distribution to customers pursuant to the SIPA
statutory scheme. As noted above, none of these funds will be used to pay administrative costs
and expenses.

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel

Bernard L. Madoff filed a motion on February 5, 2020 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) for a sentencing reduction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582 and the First Step Act. The Honorable Denny Chin, U.S. Circuit Judge, invited Madoff’s victims to submit letters with their views on this motion by February 28, 2020.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and other news organizations, recently asked the Court to make those victim letters publicly available without redaction of the victims’ last names. Any objections to this requested relief must be made by 5:00 p.m. on March 6, 2020. For further information, please visit the Court’s Order posted on the SIPA Trustee’s website:

https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/dockets/009978-09-cr-00213usa-v-madoff-court-orderecf2203220.pdf

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel

On February 5, 2020, Bernard L. Madoff filed a motion with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for a sentencing reduction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582 and the First Step Act.

Madoff’s victims may submit their views on this motion to the Honorable Denny Chin, U.S. Circuit Judge. The Court has set a deadline of February 28, 2020. For further information, please visit the Notice To Former Bernard L. Madoff Investors on the U.S. Attorney’s Office website:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/madoff-sentence-reduction

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Heather Wlodek, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation of more than $988 million in recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and has authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the eleventh pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced, with today’s court approval, the SIPA Trustee will allocate more than $988 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with more than $332 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims. The remaining allocation will be held in reserve for claims that are deemed determined pending the resolution of litigation as well as other issues.

This eleventh pro rata interim distribution, when combined with the prior ten distributions, will equal at least 68.5 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The aggregate amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total more than $13.89 billion, which includes advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). All allowed customer claims up to $1,574,852.48 will be fully satisfied after the distribution. The distribution is expected to commence by late February.

The Eleventh Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the December 18, 2019 Press Release: https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/000978-press-release-eleventh-allocation-distribution.pdf

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-09/high-court-seeks-u-s-input-on-3-billion-bid-by-madoff-trustee

A decade has passed since the discovery of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, the largest financial fraud in history. Understandably, the collapse was met with heartbreak, shock, and disbelief. But just as the realizations of financial loss were taking hold, a professional recovery process was born.

The failure of the Madoff brokerage meant that, simultaneous with the FBI investigations, a special law, the Securities Investor Protection Act, was triggered. This Act gave the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) oversight of the case, full responsibility to pay for the recovery effort, and cleared the way for a Trustee, who would have the mandate to search for and use the legal system to recover funds. The Madoff matter became the largest case in the history of SIPC and we were asked to serve as its stewards.

In the early days of the Madoff Recovery Initiative, we relied on our experience, having worked on Ponzi scheme cases in the past. Even though this was the biggest fraud of its kind ever, our goal was still the same: to recover as much as possible for investors who had not recovered their principal. But given the typical recoveries reached in past Ponzi scheme cases, we expected the recovery to be just a few cents on the dollar as we began our work.

With a team of lawyers, experts, and forensic accountants, and the support of SIPC, we began to follow the money. Reconstructing a more than 30-year fraud was a massive undertaking. But the thorough work of our team of professionals allowed us to file more than 1,000 lawsuits within two years, as mandated by law, seeking the return of those monies.

As we were assembling the cases, we also moved quickly on the claims front. Investors were hurt, families were crippled financially, and charities had been destroyed by Madoff’s deceit. Together with SIPC, in the spring of 2009 we began to speedily distribute up to the maximum $500,000 advance to all who qualified. Even if the claimant disputed what was owed, we did not hold up the initial relief. We also established early on a Hardship Program, which moved those most desperately in need to the front of the line to receive a SIPC advance. Later, the Hardship Program would allow us to consider the special circumstances of hundreds of victims and spare them litigation and the need to repay ill-gotten Madoff profits.

And one by one, as a result of settled lawsuits and negotiations, the recoveries started to come in. We reached deep into our toolkits to engineer agreements with financial institutions, feeder funds, and other sophisticated investors.

By late January 2009, the Trustee had recovered more than $865 million from several banks and other financial institutions holding BLMIS assets. By late 2010, we had recovered more than $7.3 billion. And 10 years from the discovery of the Ponzi scheme, the Madoff Recovery Initiative had reached $13.3 billion in recovered funds. The Madoff recovery team has set new records for the recovery and return of stolen funds, both in terms of percentage and dollar amounts. Every single penny that we collect goes back into the hands of BLMIS customers. The Madoff Recovery Initiative is the most successful Ponzi recovery in history.

Distributions from our Customer Fund began in 2011, following important court victories. To date, in addition to SIPC advances, we’ve made ten distributions – at least one each year -- putting more than $12.3 billion back in the pockets of swindled customers of BLMIS. With our tenth distribution, all allowed customer claims up to approximately $1.490 million will be paid in full, and the remaining investors will have received more than 66 percent of each allowed claim amount. This level of success was unthinkable during the first months of the recovery initiative.

Over the past 10 years, we have also changed the face of liquidation legal practice and set new precedents that will benefit victims of future financial frauds. The most significant of these legal victories is supporting the use of net equity to fairly determine the claim amounts of all investors. We believe that using the net equity method is the only way to ensure that the net losers – those who had not withdrawn more than they deposited – were treated equitably. Our methodology survived numerous legal challenges, all the way to the Supreme Court.

A related issue was whether customers are entitled to time-based damages, which would benefit customers who were invested the longest at the expense of newer customers. We maintained that any time-based damages could not come into play until all customers with approved claims have recovered 100 percent of their principal. Again, we prevailed on this important question.

Transparency has been another hallmark of our efforts. By creating the Madoff Recovery Initiative website, madofftrustee.com, we established a home for an unprecedented amount of information, including news about the case, questions, answers, and a database of more than 8,900 legal filings.

Unravelling the Madoff Ponzi scheme and seeking recoveries around the globe has been the challenge of a lifetime, and we are proud to serve as the stewards of this process. It has been a long road, and we are not done yet. Our approach has always been to leave no stone unturned. Every day, we remain mindful of why we are here, who we are working for, and what our goals are. Our partnership with SIPC on the Madoff Recovery Initiative is meant to help restore faith in the markets, and we hope that on that point we have succeeded. As always, we invite you to check back here often, as we will continue to provide the most up-to-date information possible.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-22/madoff-s-victims-getting-another-464-million-as-payouts-mount

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-11/madoff-victims-get-419-million-payment-10-years-after-arrest

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/officials-big-payout-coming-madoff-victims-34592874

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-10-21/finding-more-money-for-bernie-madoff-victims

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-26/estates-of-madoff-s-dead-sons-reach-23-million-u-s-settlement

Press release from the offices of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), and Stephen P. Harbeck, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)

MADOFF RECOVERY INITIATIVE REACHES APPROXIMATELY $13.26 BILLION IN RECOVERED FUNDS

AGGREGATE DISTRIBUTIONS TOTAL APPROXIMATELY
$11.9 BILLION

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, DC – July 5, 2018 – Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), said that with Tuesday’s Court approval of the SIPA Trustee’s motion to approve the settlement with Ascot Partners, L.P., Ascot Fund Limited, J. Ezra Merkin, and Gabriel Capital Corporation, the Madoff Recovery Initiative has now reached more than $13.26 billion in recoveries, a new milestone for recoveries in Ponzi schemes. The recoveries exceed similar efforts related to prior Ponzi schemes both in terms of dollar value and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

“At the start of this recovery initiative nearly ten years ago, we were determined to recover as much as possible for Madoff’s victims, but we were not sure how much we could recover,” said Mr. Picard. “Thanks to the wonderful performance of our teams and the backing of SIPC, we have achieved unprecedented success – recovery of over $13.26 billion -- for those whose funds were stolen by Madoff. It’s an exceptional outcome for Madoff’s victims, many of whom didn’t expect to get any of their stolen funds returned.”

“The SIPA Trustee and his teams are a shining example of a successful SIPC recovery effort,” said Stephen P. Harbeck, SIPC’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “SIPC was established to assist the victims of thefts like Madoff’s. We have a long history of success, and the outstanding result of the Madoff Recovery Initiative is an extraordinary example.”

“Surpassing the $13.26 billion mark is great news for all of Madoff’s victims, both the ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ investors with BLMIS,” said David J. Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “But our work is not done. We continue to pursue many avenues on behalf of Madoff’s victims, and look forward to returning even more in stolen funds back to Madoff’s victims as we pass additional, significant milestones in the future.”

As of today, and since his appointment in December 2008, the SIPA Trustee has recovered $13.26 billion for Madoff victims, every penny of which is placed into the BLMIS Customer Fund for distributions to Madoff victims. The $13.26 billion represents approximately 75% of the estimated $17.5 billion in principal lost in the Ponzi scheme by BLMIS customers who filed claims.

Distributions from the Customer Fund are made to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. The SIPA Trustee has also structured agreements with Madoff feeder funds that insure “indirect” BLMIS customers receive distributions from the Customer Fund.

No funds recovered in the Madoff Recovery Initiative are used to pay administrative costs. All trustee, legal and accounting fees, as well as administrative expenses, are paid by SIPC.

The SIPA Trustee has completed nine interim pro rata distributions to BLMIS account holders with allowed claims, bringing the aggregate amount distributed to eligible claimants to more than $11.91 billion, which includes approximately $844.92 million in funds committed to be advanced by SIPC, and which represents 63.904 percent of each allowed claim amount.

The SIPA Trustee’s motion and the Court’s order can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB) / Adv. Pro. No. 09-01364 (SMB). The motion and the Court’s order – as well as further information on recoveries to date, other legal proceedings, further settlements, and general information – can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website: www.madofftrustee.com.

Messrs. Harbeck, Picard, and Sheehan would like to thank the Securities Investor Protection Corporation’s Josephine Wang, Kevin H. Bell, and Nathanael Kelley, as well as BakerHostetler attorneys Seanna R. Brown, Oren J. Warshavsky, Lan Hoang, Nicholas J. Cremona, Geraldine E. Ponto, Regina L. Griffin, Stacey A. Bell, Thomas L. Long, Keith R. Murphy, Melissa L. Kosack, Geoffrey A. North, Torello H. Calvani, Amy E. Vanderwal, Kathryn M. Zunno, Tatiana Markel, Brian W. Song, Esterina Giuliani, Edward J. Jacobs, Tracy L. Cole, Jorian L. Rose, Gonzalo S. Zeballos, Robertson D. Beckerlegge, Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jason S. Oliver, Jonathan B. New, Catherine E. Woltering, Farrell A. Hochmuth, Deborah H. Renner, James H. Rollinson, Benjamin D. Pergament, Eric R. Fish, Ruth E. Hartman, James A. Sherer, Patrick T. Campbell, Jessie M. Gabriel, Rachel M. Smith, Dean D. Hunt, Marie L. Carlisle, John J. Burke, Steven H. Goldberg, Jimmy Fokas, Michael R. Matthias, Brian A. Bash, Lauren J. Resnick, Carrie Longstaff, Erika K. Thomas, Brian F. Allen, Nkosi D. Shields, Jonathan D. Blattmachr, Jonathan A. Forman, Melissa M. Carvalho, Heather J. McDonald, Andrew W. Reich, Amanda E. Fein, Ganesh Krishna, Stephanie Ackerman, Shawn P. Hough, Stacy A. Dasaro, Noah J. Goertemiller, Ross M. Gillingham, Tara E. Turner, Lindsay J. Biondo, Michelle M. Hoff, Marianne E. Hoover, Samantha A. Cardenas, Joanna F. Wasick, Marshall J. Mattera, Marco Molina, Camille C. Bent, Tara R. Chandler, Maryland H. Ubaid, Melonia A. Bennett, Robyn M. Feldstein, David W. Rice, Maxim G. Brumbach, Lauren E. Martin, Matthew E. Molony, Matthew K. Cowherd, Jena G. Goldmark, David Choi, Michael A. Sabella, Robert G. Nickodem, Francesca Perkins Austin, Peter B. Shapiro, S. Benjamin Barnes, David M. McMillan, Joshua B. Rog, Sophie Rouach, Damon C. Barhorst, Jason I. Blanchard, Frank M. Oliva, Nicholas M. Rose, Jason T. White, Daniel P. Porembski, Joshua L. Berry, Kenneth A. Foisy, Heather Wlodek, Matthew D. Feil, Anat Maytal, Mackenna A. White, Damon M. Durbin, Joel D. Gottesman, Maximillian S. Shifrin, Christopher P. Gallagher, Matthew B. Friedman, Michelle N. Tanney, Andrew M. Serrao, Lauren R. Weinberg, Maria A. de Dios, Victoria L. Stork, Philip Bieler, Andres A. Munoz, Michelle R. Usitalo, Ferve E. Khan, Melissa L. Hansford, Jody E. Schechter, Thomas F. Howley, Joyce R. Kennedy, Nickoli X. Miguel, Margaret A. Nowak, Anthony R. Santiago, Eric B. Hiatt, Lauren T. Attard, Rachel C. Monaghan, Csila Boga-Lofaro, Cara McGourty, Jordan A. Sinclair, Tiffany A. Miao, Kevin M. Wallace, Chloe S. Fischetti, Jean H. Shin, Elyssa S. Kates, Elizabeth G. McCurrach, Lauren M. Hilsheimer, Ian R. Cohen, Stacey M. Patrick, Molly H. Tranbaugh, Lauren P. Berglin, Panida A. Pollawit, Kendall E. Wangsgard, Nichole L. Sterling, and Bari R. Nadworny, who have assisted with the global Madoff Recovery Initiative in the past ten years.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-13/madoff-investor-ezra-merkin-agrees-to-pay-victims-280-million

MADOFF TRUSTEE REACHES RECOVERY AGREEMENT
WITH THEMA INTERNATIONAL

SETTLEMENT DELIVERS IMMEDIATE BENEFIT TO CUSTOMER FUND OF APPROXIMATELY $687 MILLION

Madoff Trustee Has Recovered or Reached Agreements to Recover More Than $12.7 Billion To Date in BLMIS Liquidation; More Than $10 Billion Distributed to Madoff Victims

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, DC – September 6, 2017 – Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), filed a motion today in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking approval of a settlement agreement with Thema International Fund plc (“Thema International”). An approval hearing for the agreement has been set for October 25, 2017 at 10 a.m.

Thema International is an Irish fund, which invested substantially all of its assets with BLMIS. The $687 million payment represents 100 percent of the transfers from BLMIS to Thema International during the six years prior to the collapse of BLMIS plus 19.26 percent of the withdrawals beyond the six year period. The agreement, reached through mediation, represents a good faith, complete settlement of all disputes between the SIPA Trustee and Thema International. The SIPA Trustee will allow the net equity claim of Thema International upon receipt of the payment.

“The Thema International settlement is the latest in a series of highly successful negotiations and mediations,” said BakerHostetler partner Oren J. Warshavsky. “The Trustee settled with the Lagoon and Thema Funds earlier this year. Together, the three settlements deliver an aggregate benefit of more than $1 billion to the BLMIS Customer Fund.”

“The Thema International settlement is another outstanding achievement by the SIPA Trustee and his team, and will be part of a significant, additional distribution by year-end to both direct and indirect investors in BLMIS,” said Stephen P. Harbeck, President and Chief Executive Officer of SIPC. “This excellent result will bring a virtually immediate benefit to the customers of BLMIS. As with prior funds collected by the SIPA Trustee, every cent will go directly to victims. All expenses of this massive case are paid by SIPC.”

The SIPA Trustee’s motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB) / Adv. Pro. No. 09-01364 (SMB). The motion – as well as further information on recoveries to date, other legal proceedings, further settlements, and general information – can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website: www.madofftrustee.com.

Messrs. Harbeck and Picard, and David J. Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee, would like to thank the Securities Investor Protection Corporation’s Josephine Wang and Kevin Bell, as well as BakerHostetler attorneys Oren J. Warshavsky, Geoffrey A. North, Gonzalo S. Zeballos, Robertson D. Beckerlegge, Michelle R. Usitalo, Peter B. Shapiro, Eric B. Hiatt, Carrie A. Longstaff, Tatiana Markel, Dominic A. Gentile, and Anat Maytal, who assisted with the work on the matter and settlement.

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https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/meet-the-legal-duo-fighting-for-madoff-victims-20180109

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-18/madoff-victims-near-full-recovery-of-principal-with-new-payout

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/madoff-recoveries-top-10-billion-185237553.html

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140505005885/en/Fourth-Pro-Rata-Interim-Distribution-Recovered-Funds

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110509007179/en/Liquidators-Fairfield-Sentry-Limited-Largest-Madoff-Feeder

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-06/madoff-trustee-reaches-687-million-settlement-with-thema-fund

 A Message from the SIPA Trustee’s Chief Counsel, David J. Sheehan

August 30, 2017 – The overriding goal of this liquidation is to return principal lost in the Madoff Ponzi fraud to its rightful owners in the timeliest manner possible. The rightful owners include both “direct” Madoff customers (those who had accounts with the Madoff firm) and “indirect” customers (those who invested in BLMIS through third parties).

Over the past eight years, the SIPA Trustee and his global legal teams have recovered or reached agreements to recover more than $12.0 billion, and more than $10.2 billion has been distributed to victims of the Madoff Ponzi scheme.

The indirect investors represent a significant group of Madoff victims, with approximately 69 percent of the losses associated with feeder fund accounts. Getting recoveries returned to indirect Madoff investors is much more complex than returns to the direct investors. We have had a great deal of success, nevertheless, in safeguarding the interests of indirect Madoff investors and restoring stolen funds to them. In this letter, I’d like to update you on our approach and recent activities in that area.

In the beginning of the case, we moved as quickly as possible to evaluate more than 16,000 claims filed with the SIPA Trustee. The losses incurred by Madoff customers with BLMIS accounts in their own names were relatively straightforward to determine because the SIPA Trustee and his team had access to BLMIS’s books and records showing their investment histories with BLMIS.

Losses incurred by those who invested indirectly in BLMIS – in vehicles such as feeder funds – posed more difficulties. This is because the information regarding identity, the amounts invested, and whether that investor is a “net loser” or “net winner” was maintained by the feeder fund (or other investment entity), not the SIPA Trustee. In other words, the SIPA Trustee could not know who those investors are or how much they have lost.

That limitation does not mean that indirect investors are out of luck. Our court-approved approach has been to consider the feeder fund or other third party as the customer of record, while creating safeguards for the indirect investors to ensure that they share in the distributions to the fullest extent possible. Specifically, as the feeder funds and other third parties settle their litigations with the SIPA Trustee and begin receiving distributions, the settlement agreements provide that they expedite reimbursements to their investors. In some cases, the terms of the settlement preclude managers of the funds from participating in recoveries to ensure that the maximum amount is returned to the investors.

Is our approach working? Yes, and a recent court ruling is the latest example.

Tremont Group Holdings, Inc. and its affiliates (“Tremont”) had more than a dozen feeder funds with five BLMIS accounts. The SIPA Trustee settled with Tremont in September 2011, allowing its claim for $3 billion. To date, Tremont has received $1.8 billion from the SIPA Trustee.

Tremont was sued by its investors in a federal class action. In 2015, a district court approved a Plan of Allocation, which distinguished between the “net loser” and “net winner” feeder funds of Tremont. Each fund’s investors were to receive a pro rata share of the recoveries according to the investors’ net equity (i.e., amount lost) in that fund. The investors in the “net loser” funds received distributions. Investors in the “net winner” funds, by contrast, contributed to the settlement.

Investors in the “net winner” funds appealed this arrangement, but failed to overturn the Plan of Allocation. The Second Circuit, in affirming the district court’s Plan of Allocation, noted that “the [Plan of Allocation] adopts the net equity principle of allocation that this Court has previously endorsed with respect to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. This principle holds that, because net winners were given money stolen from net losers, only net losers have an equitable right to recovery.” This ruling paves the way for Tremont’s indirect investors to share in the SIPA Trustee’s distributions.

As the Tremont settlement demonstrates, even though indirect investors are not “customers” according to strict legal definition, they are still Madoff victims and still benefit from the SIPA Trustee’s distributions.

Other examples include the Ariel Fund Limited and Gabriel Capital L.P., which received initial distributions of approximately $179.5 million in 2015 shortly after settling with the SIPA Trustee, which were distributed to their investors. These funds have also received subsequent distributions that, in turn, were restored to their investors. These are just but a few examples of the SIPA Trustee’s commitment to all Madoff victims, be they among the “direct” customers in BLMIS or the “indirect” investors who invested with Madoff through third parties.

Fairness to all remains our goal.

David J. Sheehan
August 30, 2017

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 A Message from the SIPA Trustee’s Chief Counsel, David J. Sheehan

March 6, 2017 – Just a few months ago – within days of the eighth anniversary of the revelation that Bernard Madoff’s vaunted investment prowess was, in fact, the largest Ponzi scheme in history – we announced our plans for the eighth interim distribution of recovered funds to the victims of the Madoff fraud.

The distribution was approved by the court and commenced in early February. With this distribution, the aggregate amount returned to eligible BLMIS customers now totals approximately $9.72 billion. When combined with the prior seven distributions, in aggregate, 60.098 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount will be paid, unless that claim has been fully satisfied.

When we first began work on the Madoff Recovery Initiative eight years ago, it was widely expected that we would recover only a few pennies on every lost dollar. I was among those who held that expectation.

I vividly recall our second day on the job, our first visit to the BLMIS headquarters in the Lipstick Building on Third Avenue. Irving and I, and two other BakerHostetler attorneys, entered the chaos that was left behind after Madoff's arrest a week before. We were in a BLMIS conference room on the 17th floor when a FINRA examiner told us that there were virtually no securities holdings matching what the aggregate customer statements reported, that there was only about $150 million in the cash accounts.

That was when Irving and I had to stop and take a few breaths, realizing that this was going to be a massive Ponzi scheme recovery. It still took a while to really understand the true magnitude, but that was our first horrifying glimpse of what was on the horizon.

We quickly began to assess the situation and then started to understand what type of scenario was playing out at BLMIS. Needless to say, it was shocking.

It took a year just to work through the claims process, to determine that the losses of investors who ultimately filed claims totaled approximately $17.5 billion, representing the amount of principal lost by the allowed claimants who put more money into BLMIS than they withdrew.

Determining the amount of the actual losses was just the first step. As we continued our work unwinding and reconstructing the fraud, the greater challenge came in identifying the individuals and entities holding other people’s money, and moving swiftly and aggressively to recover those funds and return them to their rightful owners. We were operating in uncharted territory; no SIPA trustee had ever undertaken a recovery of this magnitude. Almost a year later, when Irving and I met with Morley Safer of “60 Minutes” in the fall of 2009, we still had a very conservative expectation that we would bring back only pennies on the dollar for victims.

Our teams apparently didn’t watch that particular episode of “60 Minutes.” In spite of Irving’s and my initial conservative views on the potential of the recovery initiative, our teams and their efforts exceeded expectations on every front. From the initial drive to file the essential litigation – within a tight, two-year deadline – that would lead to significant recoveries to highly successful settlement negotiations to the creation of groundbreaking forensic methods, data analysis and evidence management tools, our teams have set new standards for the legal profession in fraud recovery and restitution practice. Our recoveries now total more than $11.576 billion. We have recovered more than any other similar effort, and we are not done yet.

The result to date is tremendously gratifying to all the members of the recovery team: more than 200 BakerHostetler attorneys, as well as forensic accountants, experts, foreign and special counsel, and other professionals. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every member of this team. Yes, this type of work is our chosen career, but I can tell you that among our team members, there is a sense of mission that goes beyond “another day at the office.” We know that people were really hurt here.

I’d also like to thank the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. SIPC is the securities industry-funded organization that makes this entire recovery effort possible. Not only has SIPC funded the entire Madoff Recovery Initiative through advances, they have also advanced more than $839.9 million to BLMIS customers with allowed claims to speed some relief to them while Irving, the team and I do our jobs. Thanks to SIPC’s support, every dollar recovered will ultimately be restored to the victims.

Our sense of mission remains strong and compelling. Our ongoing goal is to focus on recoveries and bring back 100 percent of that lost principal.

Will we reach that goal? Our expectations for the ultimate recovery evolve. Even now, eight years later, the landscape continues to change, and as the courts make further determinations on critical issues, the case changes radically from time to time. However, we are gratified that many of Madoff’s customers with allowed claims have gotten back far more of their lost principal than they ever expected.

We will continue our efforts to meet our goal, no question. We also hope our work will help others avoid a similar tragedy.

David J. Sheehan
March 6, 2017

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Amanda Remus, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation of $247 million in recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and has authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the seventh pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced, the SIPA Trustee, with today’s court approval, will allocate approximately $247.013 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with approximately $171.016 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims and approximately $75.997 million held in reserve for claims that are deemed determined pending the resolution of litigation, as well as other issues. This seventh interim distribution, when combined with the prior six distributions, will equal 58.237 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total approximately $9.45 billion, which includes more than $836.63 million in advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

The distribution is expected to commence by mid-July. Record holders of allowed claims as of June 15, 2016 will be eligible to receive payments from the seventh interim distribution.

The supplemental Seventh Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the May 25, 2016 Press Release:
http://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/000678-2016-may-25-statement.pdf

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MADOFF TRUSTEE REQUESTS ALLOCATION OF
$342 MILLION TO CUSTOMER FUND
AND COURT APPROVAL TO IMMEDIATELY DISTRIBUTE
APPROXIMATELY $252 MILLION
TO BLMIS CUSTOMERS WITH ALLOWED CLAIMS

Eighth Pro Rata Interim Distribution Will Bring
Aggregate Customer Payout in Global Madoff Liquidation to More Than $9.72 Billion

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, DC – Wednesday, December 14, 2016 – Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), filed a motion today in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York seeking approval for an allocation of recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and an authorization for an eighth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 10 a.m. EST.

The eighth pro rata interim distribution approval filing arrives on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the District Court’s 2008 appointments of Mr. Picard and BakerHostetler as SIPA Trustee and Counsel, respectively, for the Madoff liquidation. Their appointments followed the revelation of Madoff’s decades-long fraud in which more than $17.5 billion was stolen from Madoff’s customers in the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

Plans for the eighth pro rata interim distribution are the result of settlements and recoveries achieved by the SIPA Trustee, his Chief Counsel David J. Sheehan, and their legal teams during the second half of 2016. The most notable was the universal recovery agreement of approximately $277 million – made in cooperation with the California Attorney General – that ended litigation against the Estate of Stanley Chais and other Chais-related defendants. The BLMIS Customer Fund benefited by approximately $234 million after court approval of the settlement on November 19, 2016. With this and other additional settlement outcomes, the SIPA Trustee stands ready to make an eighth pro rata interim distribution to allowed claimants of 1.729 percent on each allowed claim.

If the distribution motion is approved on January 12, 2017, the SIPA Trustee will allocate a total of approximately $342 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with approximately $252 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims and approximately $90.7 million held in reserve for claims that are deemed determined pending the resolution of litigation, as well as other issues.

This eighth pro rata interim distribution, when combined with the prior seven distributions, will equal 60.098 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total approximately $9.72 billion, which includes more than $839.6 million in advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

Stephen P. Harbeck, President and CEO of SIPC, said, “The eighth distribution is the latest positive outcome of the excellent work done by SIPA Trustee Picard and his Counsel on this SIPA liquidation. The settlement of major litigation prior to trial makes this expedited payment possible. I also want to emphasize that none of the money recovered in these settlements is used to pay administrative costs. All trustee, legal and accounting fees, as well as administrative expenses, are paid by SIPC in the Madoff case. My hope today is that future recoveries will result in additional distributions to Madoff’s victims as soon as possible.”

Mr. Picard added, “For those who find the annual December anniversary of Madoff’s arrest difficult, we hope the recoveries that have resulted in eight distributions so far have been helpful. I am proud of our team’s accomplishments and I am gratified that many of Madoff’s victims have gotten back more of their principal investment than they ever expected to recover.”

Mr. Sheehan concluded, “The Madoff Recovery Initiative continues to defy expectations. With each distribution, the SIPA Trustee continues to beat the odds and deliver record-breaking results which benefit the defrauded victims of Madoff’s decades-long Ponzi scheme. Our ongoing focus is never on past recoveries, but always on future ones that will lead to further distributions to victims at the earliest possible opportunity.”

To date, the SIPA Trustee has allowed 2,608 claims related to 2,255 accounts and the proposed distribution will be paid on claims related to 953 accounts. If the eighth pro rata interim distribution is approved by the Bankruptcy Court, when combined with SIPC advances and the amounts from the prior seven pro rata interim distributions, 1,333 accounts will be fully satisfied (all accounts with allowed claims of up to $1,253,018.77), leaving 922 accounts partially satisfied and entitled to participate in future distributions.

The eighth pro rata interim distribution will result in the return of 1.729 percent of the allowed claim amount for each individual account, unless the allowed claim has been fully satisfied. The average payment amount to those 953 BLMIS accounts will be $263,998.40. The smallest payment totals $271.80 and the largest payment is $42,320,519.04.

As of December 14, 2016 and since his appointment on December 15, 2008, the SIPA Trustee has recovered or reached agreements to recover approximately $11.486 billion. These outcomes exceed similar efforts related to prior Ponzi scheme recoveries, in terms of dollars and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

Ultimately, 100 percent of the SIPA Trustee’s recoveries will be allocated to the Customer Fund for distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. Prior distributions as of December 14, 2016 are as follows:

• The first pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on October 5, 2011, has distributed approximately $685.5 million, representing 4.602 percent of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The second pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on September 19, 2012, has distributed approximately $4.98 billion, representing 33.556 percent of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The third pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on March 29, 2013, has distributed approximately $696.5 million, representing 4.721 percent of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The fourth pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on May 5, 2014, has distributed approximately $468.4 million, representing 3.180 percent of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The fifth pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on February 6, 2015, has distributed approximately $403.5 million, representing 2.743 percent of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The sixth pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on December 4, 2015, has distributed approximately $1.209 billion, representing 8.262 percent of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The seventh pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on June 30, 2016, has distributed approximately $190.3 million, representing 1.305 percent of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

There are 60 deemed determined claims still subject to litigation. Once litigation is either resolved or settled, these claims may be allowed and would therefore become eligible for all pro rata interim distributions to date. For that potential scenario, as of December 14, 2016, the SIPA Trustee has reserved approximately $1.931 billion. The ultimate amount of additional allowed claims depends on the outcome of litigation or negotiation and could add billions of dollars to the total amount of allowed claims.

All administrative costs of the SIPA liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and its global recovery efforts, which make the distributions possible, are funded by SIPC.

Upon Bankruptcy Court approval, record holders of allowed claims as of December 14, 2016 will be eligible to receive payments from the eighth pro rata interim distribution.

The Eighth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at: www.madofftrustee.com.

Messrs. Harbeck, Picard and Sheehan would like to thank Seanna Brown and Heather Wlodek of BakerHostetler, who worked on the eighth pro rata interim distribution and its related filings, as well as BakerHostetler, Windels Marx and all of the attorneys and professionals whose work has led to the distribution. They would also like to thank Vineet Sehgal and his colleagues at AlixPartners, as well as Josephine Wang, Kevin Bell and their colleagues at SIPC, for their ongoing work and participation in the Madoff Recovery Initiative distributions.

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Amanda Remus, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation of approximately $342 million in recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and has authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the eighth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced, the SIPA Trustee, with today’s court approval, will allocate approximately $342 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund, with approximately $252 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims and approximately $90.7 million held in reserve for claims that are deemed determined pending the resolution of litigation, as well as other issues. This eighth interim distribution, when combined with the prior seven distributions, will equal 60.098 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount, unless that claim has been fully satisfied. The amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers will total approximately $9.72 billion, which includes more than $839.6 million in advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

The distribution is expected to commence by mid-February. Record holders of allowed claims as of January 12, 2017 will be eligible to receive payments from the eighth interim distribution.

The supplemental Eighth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to the December 14, 2016 Press Release:
http://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/000729-2016-december-14-eighth-distribution-press-release.pdf

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/10/madoff-trustee-assets/1759629/

http://libn.com/2016/06/30/seventh-distribution-of-money-to-madoff-victims-begins/#ixzz4D5PcMSUH

Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Amanda Remus, spokeswoman for SIPA Trustee Irving H. Picard and his counsel:

Plans for a sixth interim pro rata distribution of funds recovered in the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) can now proceed after the Supreme Court’s decision today not to review a petition for writ of certiorari regarding the applicability of an inflation or interest adjustment on the customer claims in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The Supreme Court’s ruling upholds lower court decisions that Madoff victims are not entitled to the so-called “time-based damages” to the funds they had deposited with BLMIS.

The SIPA Trustee will immediately request a new hearing date for approval of the Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion originally filed on April 15, 2015 with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. In the sixth pro rata interim distribution motion, the SIPA Trustee sought the release of $1.249 billion of the $1.449 billion held in reserve under a September 2012 Bankruptcy Court order, with $904 million available for immediate distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims and approximately $345 million held in reserve for claims that are “deemed determined” pending the resolution of litigation and other issues.

The reserve was required due to ongoing litigation of the “time-based damages” issue, in which claimants asserted that they were entitled to an inflation or interest adjustment on their claims. On February 20, 2015, the Second Circuit affirmed that claimants in the SIPA liquidation of BLMIS are not entitled to any interest or inflation adjustments on money deposited at BLMIS.

The SIPA Trustee would like to thank the attorneys who worked on his behalf on this petition including: David J. Sheehan and Seanna R. Brown of BakerHostetler and Thomas C. Goldstein and Tejinder Singh of Goldstein & Russell, as well as Josephine Wang and Kevin Bell, attorneys at the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).
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Link to the original April 15th press release:
http://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/000579-2015-april-15-sipa-trustee-6th-dist-filing-press-release-final.pdf

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Amanda Remus, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the SIPA Trustee’s request for an allocation of $1.5 billion in recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and has authorized the SIPA Trustee to proceed with the sixth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

As previously announced, $1.18 billion of the allocation is available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims and approximately $320 million will be held in reserve for claims that are deemed determined pending the resolution of litigation, as well as other issues. When completed, the sixth distribution will bring the amount distributed to eligible BLMIS customers to approximately $9.13 billion – nearly 57 percent of the losses documented by Madoff’s victims – which includes more than $827 million in advances committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). As of today, the SIPA Trustee has recovered or entered agreements to recover more than $10.9 billion.

The distribution is expected to commence before year-end 2015. Record holders of allowed claims as of November 18, 2015 will be eligible to receive payments from the sixth interim distribution.

The supplemental Sixth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on the BLMIS liquidation at www.madofftrustee.com.

Link to October 20 Press Release:
http://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/000620-october-20-2015-2250-press-release-on-supplemental-information-and-the-6th-interim-distribution-final.pdf

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http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/local/trustee-wants-release-of-15-billion-to-madoff-vict/nn6gF/

Press release from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC

MADOFF TRUSTEE REACHES RECOVERY AGREEMENT OF $35 MILLION WITH FEEDER FUNDS ARIEL FUND LIMITED AND GABRIEL CAPITAL, L.P.

TOTAL BLMIS CUSTOMER FUND RECOVERIES NEARLY $10.734 BILLION

NEW YORK, NEW YORK– June 1, 2015 – Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), filed a motion on Friday, May 29 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York seeking approval of a settlement agreement with Bart M. Schwartz, the court-appointed Receiver for Ariel Fund Limited and Gabriel Capital, L.P.

Under the terms of the agreement, the settlement with Ariel Fund Limited will immediately benefit the BLMIS Customer Fund by approximately $17.9 million, and the settlement with Gabriel Capital, L.P. will benefit the BLMIS Customer Fund by approximately $17 million. These payments by both Ariel Fund Limited and Gabriel Capital, L.P. represent 100 percent of the amount transferred from BLMIS to the funds. The approval hearing has been set for June 24, 2015 at 10:00 a.m.

The SIPA Trustee seeks to recover at least an additional $280 million against J. Ezra Merkin, Ascot Partners LP, Ascot Fund Ltd., and Gabriel Capital Corporation, and the claims against those defendants remain unresolved.

Ariel Fund Limited and Gabriel Capital, L.P. will be entitled to allowed claims and the corresponding catch-up payments based on the five pro rata interim distributions made in the SIPA liquidation of BLMIS to date. Ariel Fund Limited will receive an allowed claim of approximately $189.4 million and will be entitled to a catch-up payment of approximately $92.4 million. Gabriel Capital, L.P. will receive an allowed claim of approximately $178.4 million and will be entitled to a catch-up payment of approximately $87.1 million. Both funds will then continue to receive future distributions, along with all other BLMIS customers with allowed claims who are not yet fully satisfied.

Lan Hoang, a partner at BakerHostetler, the court-appointed counsel to the SIPA Trustee, stated, “The SIPA Trustee’s motion asks that the agreement be approved because it confers significant benefits not only to the BLMIS Customer Fund but also to the investors of Ariel Fund Limited and Gabriel Capital, L.P. The agreement is also structured to bar direct distributions from either fund to J. Ezra Merkin and Gabriel Capital Corporation until those two parties’ obligations under a separate settlement made with the New York Attorney General have been fully satisfied.”

One hundred percent of the SIPA Trustee's recoveries will be allocated to the BLMIS Customer Fund for distribution to customers with allowed claims. To date, the SIPA Trustee has recovered more than $10.699 billion and has distributed approximately $7.576 billion, which includes more than $825.5 million in committed advances from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Once the agreement is approved by the Bankruptcy Court, the total BLMIS Customer Fund recoveries will total $10.734 billion.

The costs associated with the SIPA Trustee’s recovery and settlement efforts are paid in full by SIPC, which administers a fund drawn upon assessments on the securities industry. No fees or other costs of administration are paid from the recoveries obtained by the SIPA Trustee for the benefit of the BLMIS Customer Fund.

The SIPA Trustee’s motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB) / Adv. Pro. No. 09-01182 (SMB). In addition, the motion – as well as further information on recoveries to date, other legal proceedings, further settlements, and general information – can be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website: www.madofftrustee.com.

In addition to Ms. Hoang, the SIPA Trustee and David Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee, would like to thank the Securities Investor Protection Corporation’s Kevin Bell as well as BakerHostetler attorneys Brian Song, Seanna Brown, and Stacy Dasaro who assisted with the work on this settlement.

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Link to Securities Investor Protection Corporation Press Release: http://sipc.org/news-and-media/news-releases/20150601

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Amanda Remus, spokeswoman for Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) and his counsel:

On May 26, 2015, the SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) filed a notice of adjournment of the hearing – which was scheduled for May 28, 2015 – for approval of the sixth interim distribution motion. The notice, filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, adjourns the hearing until July 29, 2015.

In the sixth pro rata interim distribution motion, filed April 15, 2015, the SIPA Trustee sought the release of $1.249 billion of the $1.449 billion held in reserve under a September 2012 Bankruptcy Court order.

The reserve was required due to ongoing litigation of the “time-based damages” issue, in which claimants asserted that they were entitled to an inflation or interest adjustment on their claims. On February 20, 2015, the Second Circuit affirmed that claimants in the SIPA liquidation of BLMIS are not entitled to interest or inflation adjustments on money deposited at BLMIS.

The May 28 hearing was originally scheduled for seven days after the expiration of the time period within which claimants could ask the Supreme Court of the United States to review the Second Circuit decision by filing a petition for writ of certiorari. If no petitions had been filed, the SIPA Trustee’s sixth distribution motion hearing would have been able to go forward on that date.
Although as of today, no petitions for certiorari have been filed, certain parties requested an extension of the deadline to file a petition for certiorari. The request was granted by the Supreme Court of the United States and the deadline was extended to July 20, 2015.

The SIPA Trustee is hopeful that no petition for certiorari will be filed with the Supreme Court by July 20 so that the hearing regarding the sixth distribution motion may go forward on July 29, 2015. If the distribution motion is approved, the SIPA Trustee will release $1.249 billion of the reserved $1.449 billion, with $904 million available for immediate distribution to customers with allowed claims.

However, if a petition for certiorari is filed by July 20, 2015, the sixth distribution motion hearing will be adjourned again, until such time as the Supreme Court resolves the petition for certiorari.

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Link to the Notice of Adjournment:
http://www.madofftrustee.com/document/dockets/006006-blmisnotices08-01789docket10037.pdf

Link to the original April 15th press release:
http://www.madofftrustee.com/document/news/000579-2015-april-15-sipa-trustee-6th-dist-filing-press-release-final.pdf

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Almost Half of Madoff's Victims Now Fully Paid
By Bill Rochelle and Sherri Toub

Feb 10, 2015 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Madoff's victims are receiving a fifth distribution of $355.8 million, bringing the total recovery to 48.8 percent for those not already paid in full.

The new distribution of 2.7 percent begun on Feb. 6 was about $33 million larger than the
estimate Irving Picard, the trustee unwinding Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC,
made when seeking court approval for the payments in December.

Made to creditors of record on Jan. 15, the distribution largely became possible thanks to $642
million recovered in late 2014. This year, Picard said, he looks forward to several court rulings
that would allow him to distribute "billions of dollars currently held in reserve."

Of about 2,550 in approved claims, every creditor with a claim of $976,600 or less has now
been paid in full. The 1,160 fully paid creditors represent 45.5 percent of those with approved
claims.

Picard has distributed $7.2 billion from his recoveries. In addition, the Securities Investor
Protection Corp. advanced $823.7 million, which also has been handed out. SIPC pays
customer claims of as much as $500,000 when a trustee's assets are insufficient.

Even were Picard to make no more recoveries, customers eventually should receive more than
$14.5 billion toward claims totaling about $17 billion, including $10.55 billion taken in by the
trustee and about $4 billion forfeited to the federal government.

With disputes still in litigation, Picard is holding back some $3.8 billion, including about $1.45
billion to abide by the result of an appeal on whether customers are entitled to interest on their
claims. The interest matter was argued Oct. 14 before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
Picard also holds $2.36 billion for what he calls "deemed determined" claims that are the subject
of litigation.

Picard's fourth distribution, in May, was $351.6 million, or 3.18 percent of customer claims.
From the $10.55 billion Picard has recovered so far, everything eventually goes to customers
because expenses of the liquidation are paid by SIPC.

The average payment in the latest distribution is about $330,000. The largest is $67.1 million.
Madoff's firm began liquidating in December 2008 with the appointment of Picard as trustee
under the Securities Investor Protection Act. Madoff himself went into an involuntary Chapter 7
liquidation in April 2009, and his case was later consolidated with the investment firm's. He's
serving a 150-year prison sentence following a guilty plea.

The liquidation is Securities Investor Protection Corp. v. Bernard L. Madoff Investment
Securities LLC, 08- ap-01789, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York
(Manhattan).

Used with permission of Bloomberg L.P. Copyright© 2015. All rights reserved.

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Press release from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

FIFTH INTERIM DISTRIBUTION OF RECOVERED FUNDS IN GLOBAL
MADOFF SIPA LIQUIDATION WILL TOTAL APPROXIMATELY $322 MILLION

Aggregate Distributions of Approximately $7.2 Billion Represent
Return of More Than 48.5 Percent of Losses to Allowed Claimants

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – December 22, 2014 – Irving H. Picard, Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) filed a motion today in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York seeking approval for an allocation of recoveries to the BLMIS Customer Fund and an authorization for a fifth pro rata interim distribution from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

The fifth pro rata interim distribution will total approximately $322 million and will bring the amount distributed to eligible claimants to approximately $7.2 billion, which includes more than $822.5 million in advances committed to the SIPA Trustee for distribution to allowed claimants by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

“The fifth distribution is yet another important milestone for the Madoff Recovery Initiative,” said Mr. Picard. “My legal teams have negotiated important and significant recovery agreements with several defendants. That work enables us to move ahead with this distribution, once we have the approval of the court.”

SIPC President and CEO Stephen P. Harbeck said, “The latest distribution further demonstrates how the BLMIS liquidation – with the support of SIPC – is progressing efficiently and effectively, with customers receiving significant recoveries of their lost assets even in this most egregious theft. We not only applaud the SIPA Trustee and his legal and professional teams regarding this latest accomplishment, but also look forward to additional achievements in 2015.”

The proposed distribution is a direct result of the ongoing work of the SIPA Trustee’s teams. BakerHostetler recently reached settlements with feeder funds Herald/Primeo and Senator. Windels Marx reached a settlement with the Blumenfeld defendants. The terms of these three recent agreements called for cash payments. Together, more than $642 million was brought into the BLMIS Customer Fund through these agreements. The Blumenfeld settlement was approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court on November 19, 2014 and the Herald/Primeo and Senator settlements were approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court on December 17, 2014.

The fifth pro rata interim distribution will result in the return of 2.487 percent of the allowed claim amount for each individual account, unless the allowed claim has been fully satisfied. The average payment for an allowed claim issued in the fifth distribution will total approximately $299,900. The smallest payment totals $390.96 and the largest payment is $60,873,991.23.

Currently, the SIPA Trustee has allowed 2,547 claims related to 2,213 BLMIS accounts. Of these accounts, 1,154 accounts will be fully satisfied following the fifth interim distribution. All allowed claims totaling $963,500 or less will be fully satisfied. The fifth interim distribution, when combined with the four prior interim distributions, will satisfy up to 48.546 percent of each customer’s allowed claim amount unless the account is fully satisfied. In addition, SIPC has been reimbursed for its advances to accounts which are now fully satisfied as of the fifth interim distribution.

“The past year or so has been among our most active periods, with the SIPA Trustee’s team of professionals working diligently on a number of fronts, in and out of the courtroom, using all the legal tools at our disposal,” said David J. Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “Through it all, we remain dedicated to our primary goal: to recover the maximum amount possible for the benefit of BLMIS customers with allowed claims.”

As of November 30, 2014, the SIPA Trustee has recovered or reached agreements to recover approximately $10.5 billion since his appointment in December 2008. These recoveries exceed similar efforts related to prior Ponzi scheme recoveries, in terms of dollar value and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

Ultimately, 100 percent of the SIPA Trustee’s recoveries will be allocated to the Customer Fund for distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. Prior distributions by the SIPA Trustee (as of November 30, 2014) to BLMIS accounts with allowed claims are as follows:

• The first pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on October 5, 2011, has distributed approximately $605 million, representing 4.602 percent of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The second pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on September 19, 2012, has distributed approximately $4.393 billion, representing 33.556 percent of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The third pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on March 29, 2013, has distributed approximately $614 million, representing 4.721 percent of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

• The fourth pro rata interim distribution, which commenced on May 5, 2014, has distributed approximately $412.8 million, representing 3.180 percent of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied.

Mr. Sheehan noted that there are 126 “deemed determined” claims still subject to litigation. Once litigation is resolved or settlements reached, some of these claims may be allowed and would therefore become eligible for all pro rata distributions to date. For this potential scenario, as of November 30, 2014, the SIPA Trustee has reserved approximately $2.225 billion. Upon final court approval of the fifth pro rata interim distribution, this reserve amount will increase to approximately $2.345 billion. The ultimate amount of additional allowed claims depends on the outcome of litigation or negotiation and could add billions of dollars to the total amount of allowed claims.

Mr. Sheehan also noted that the SIPA Trustee anticipates recovering additional assets through litigation and settlements. Final resolution of certain disputes will permit the SIPA Trustee to further reduce the reserves he is required to maintain, allowing him to make additional distributions to customers. Upon final court approval of the fifth interim distribution, and incorporating the fifth allocation, the SIPA Trustee will be required to maintain a reserve of approximately $1.445 billion pending the resolution of the time-based damages issue, among other reserves. As of November 30, 2014, the time-based damages reserve is approximately $1.372 billion. The SIPA Trustee will seek authorization for these further allocations and distributions upon the recovery of additional funds and the resolution of significant disputes.

All administrative costs of the SIPA liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and its global recovery efforts, which make distributions to BLMIS customers with allowed claims possible, are funded by advances to the SIPA Trustee by SIPC.

A hearing on the fifth allocation and distribution motion has been set for January 15, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. before the United States Bankruptcy Court. Upon approval, record holders of allowed claims as of January 15, 2015 will be eligible to receive payments from the fifth interim distribution. The Fifth Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion can be found on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (SMB). It can also be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website along with more information on overall recoveries to date, each settlement, the appeal status of a particular settlement, and on many other BLMIS liquidation issues at: www.madofftrustee.com.

Messrs. Picard and Sheehan would like to thank Seanna Brown and Heather Wlodek, who worked on the fifth pro rata interim distribution and its related filings, as well as the legal firms of BakerHostetler and Windels Marx, and all of the attorneys and professionals whose work has led to the distribution. They would also like to thank Vineet Sehgal and his colleagues at AlixPartners, as well as Kevin Bell and his colleagues at SIPC, for their ongoing work and participation in the Madoff Recovery Initiative distributions.

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Press release from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Supreme Court Net Equity Decision Permits SIPA Trustee to file Motion for
Second Interim Pro Rata Distribution

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, DC – June 25, 2012 – Plans for the distribution of recovered funds in the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) can now proceed after the Supreme Court declined to review the net equity calculation formula used by Irving H. Picard, the SIPA Trustee in the Madoff liquidation.

“The Supreme Court of the United States found no issue worthy of review in the challenge to our net equity calculation formula. This settles the issue once and for all and allows us to seek approval for a second distribution of recovered funds to Madoff customers,” Mr. Picard said. “With the Court’s ruling in hand, we can now determine the amount of the distribution and file the motion for approval with the Bankruptcy Court within an expedited time frame.”

In a joint announcement today with Stephen P. Harbeck, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), Mr. Picard said that this would be the second interim distribution of recovered funds to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

“After more than two years, this is excellent news for the hundreds of victims who have not received a return of all the funds they deposited with Madoff,” said Mr. Harbeck. “These victims can now look forward to receiving a distribution in the near future. The SIPA Trustee and his team, who have been held back from distributing funds pending the outcome of this time-consuming legal challenge, can now move ahead with plans for a distribution.”

The SIPA Trustee has recovered or reached agreements to recover approximately $9.1 billion, equivalent to $7 million a day for BLMIS customers since his appointment in December 2008. These recoveries exceed prior recovery efforts related to all other Ponzi schemes, in terms of dollar value and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

To date, the SIPA Trustee in the BLMIS liquidation has distributed more than $1.1 billion to Bernard Madoff’s victims. The first interim pro rata distribution of $332.6 million in recovered monies from the BLMIS Customer Fund to BLMIS customers – on allowed claims relating to 1,230 accounts, or about 4.6 percent of losses incurred by customers – commenced on October 5, 2011. In addition, BLMIS customers have received more than $801.3 million in advances the SIPA Trustee has requested from SIPC and distributed to BLMIS customers.

“We are pleased to be moving forward with a second distribution from the Customer Fund,” said David J. Sheehan, chief counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “Our legal strategy has proven highly effective and we will continue on this course to pursue all possible avenues to marshal the maximum recoveries possible for BLMIS customers.”

Potential Additional Distribution

Messrs. Picard and Harbeck said that the second interim pro rata distribution could increase if there is no further appeal by July 16, 2012 of the approximately $7.2 billion forfeited to the U.S. Government by the estate of Jeffry Picower, $5 billion of that being the settlement with the SIPA Trustee.

“Without exception, higher courts have upheld the Bankruptcy Court’s approval of the landmark Picower settlement. We are hopeful that there will be no further delay in our ability to return those funds to their rightful owners,” Mr. Picard said. Additional distributions are conditioned upon resolving appeals of other settlements including the $1.025 billion Tremont settlement and the $220 million settlement with the Norman F. Levy family. Ongoing litigation and other matters – such as the potential for an interest or constant dollar calculation – also require that significant funds continue to be held in reserve.

Information on each settlement appeal status and other issues may be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website – www.madofftrustee.com – under the “Recoveries” tab on the home page.

Net equity decision

The net equity calculation methodology is the formula for determining eligibility for pro rata distributions to BLMIS customers with allowed claims from the Customer Fund, based on “cash-in, cash-out” of BLMIS. The Bankruptcy Court’s approval of this methodology was appealed, and on August 16, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the Bankruptcy Court’s approval, affirming the SIPA Trustee’s determination regarding the calculation of net equity and rejecting the use of the fictitious November 2008 BLMIS statements in determining the value of claims. Petitions for a panel rehearing of that decision or for rehearing en banc were also denied prior to the filing of the writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s denial of the writ ends the appeal process regarding the net equity issue.

The Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion will be filed shortly with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. A copy of the motion and notice of the hearing date will be available as soon as it is filed on the SIPA Trustee's website at http://www.madofftrustee.com. It will also be available on the Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; docket number Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (BRL).

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Press release from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

SECOND INTERIM DISTRIBUTION TO MADOFF VICTIMS
WILL TOTAL APPROXIMATELY $1.5 BILLION-$2.4 BILLION

Approximately 46-50 Percent of Allowed Claims Would Be Fully Satisfied

Required Reserves for Appeals, Pending Claims and Time-Based Damages
Will Determine Final Distribution Amount

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – July 26, 2012 – Irving H. Picard, the SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (“BLMIS”) filed a motion today in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York seeking approval for an allocation of recovered monies to the BLMIS Customer Fund and for a second pro rata interim distribution – of a minimum of approximately $1.5 billion and up to approximately $2.4 billion – from the Customer Fund to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. The second interim distribution, when combined with the funds already returned to BLMIS customers would – at a minimum – satisfy approximately 46 percent of the current allowed claims in the BLMIS liquidation and could satisfy up to approximately 50 percent of the current allowed claims.

On June 25, 2012, the United States Supreme Court declined to review the net equity calculation formula in the Madoff liquidation, thus making funds held in reserve for net equity available for distribution. In addition, on July 16, 2012, the deadline for further appeals of the approximately $7.2 billion Picower forfeiture to the United States Government expired, making the forfeiture order final. This released the $5 billion Picower settlement funds to the SIPA Trustee, a portion of which will be included in this distribution.

“This distribution motion is another major milestone in the worldwide Madoff recovery effort,” said Mr. Picard. “The denial of certiorari by the Supreme Court and the release of the Picower settlement funds are great news for BLMIS customers and we will move quickly to make the distribution.”

The motion requests approval from the Bankruptcy Court to allocate approximately $5.5 billion to the Customer Fund from which the distribution will be made. A large portion of the allocated funds must be held in reserve pending the resolution of objections seeking inflation or interest adjustments to claim amounts, as well as appeals to other settlements. Additional funds must also be held in reserve in the Customer Fund pending the outcome of litigation involving 237 claims that may become allowed once those litigations are resolved.

“Distributing more money to customers with allowed claims brings us closer to our goal. However, we continue to grapple with issues, mostly objections, that seek to redirect funds that could be going to approved claimants now,” said David J. Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “An objection that in particular affects the amount of the second interim distribution is the question of whether claimants are entitled to ‘time-based damages,’ which are payments based on the time elapsed while customer monies were deposited with BLMIS. This is the reason why a significant portion of the Customer Fund cannot be distributed at this time.”

More than 1,240 objections have been filed relating to the time-based damages issue. The objections relate to additional payments based on an existing New York state statutory rate of 9 percent, inflation, or other damages calculations.

“These arguments are specious at best,” said Mr. Sheehan. “The Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) does not provide for interest or inflationary adjustments and no basis in common law exists either. In addition, time-based damages run afoul of the court rulings on net equity, because those payments would come at the expense of ‘net losers,’ who have not yet recouped their initial BLMIS principal investment.”

Mr. Sheehan noted that even though there is no basis for such damages, until the issue is resolved by the court and there is a final, nonappealable order on which to proceed, the SIPA Trustee must nevertheless establish a reserve.

“If the objections were withdrawn, the SIPA Trustee would not be required to maintain any reserve for this issue, and he could distribute more than $3 billion, or approximately 42 percent of each allowed claim amount, unless the claim is fully satisfied,” said Mr. Sheehan. “By contrast, if we must maintain the maximum reserve reflecting a 9 percent interest rate for time-based damages, which is the highest rate that objecting claimants have asserted they are entitled to, the SIPA Trustee is only able to distribute approximately $1.5 billion, or approximately 20.5 percent of each allowed claim amount, unless the claim is fully satisfied. For customers with allowed claims who have waited patiently for more than three years to receive some recovery of their stolen principal, the difference between the two distribution percentages is clearly substantial.”

Mr. Sheehan said that the SIPA Trustee, recognizing that a 9 percent interest rate is unrealistic in the current economic environment and would not likely be approved by any court, is seeking approval from the Bankruptcy Court for a reserve based on a 3 percent interest rate, which reflects a more reasonable basis for the reserve on the time-based damages issue. If objections to the 3 percent reserve are filed by third parties and cannot be resolved prior to the entry of an allocation and distribution order, the SIPA Trustee may opt to seek approval for an order to use a 9 percent reserve.

Under the 3 percent reserve scenario, 1,229 BLMIS accounts will receive a distribution of approximately $2.5 billion or approximately 33.5 percent of their allowed claim amount, unless the claim is fully satisfied. The average payment would be nearly $2 million. Of these accounts, 181 will become fully satisfied, bringing the total of fully satisfied account holders to 1,067 (1,048 accounts will remain partially satisfied and will be entitled to participate in future interim distributions).

Under the 9 percent reserve scenario, the 1,229 accounts will receive a distribution of approximately $1.5 billion or approximately 20.5 percent of their allowed claim amount, unless the claim is fully satisfied. The average payment would be more than $1.2 million. Of these accounts, 100 will become fully satisfied, bringing the total of fully satisfied account holders to 986 (1,129 accounts will remain partially satisfied and will be entitled to participate in future interim distributions).

Additional interim distributions are conditioned upon the resolution of other settlement appeals including a $1.025 billion Tremont settlement and a $220 million settlement with the Norman F. Levy family. In addition, the IRS settlement requires a $103 million settlement reserve.

Mr. Sheehan also noted that there are 237 claims that are still subject to litigation. Once the related litigation is resolved, these claims may become allowed and would become eligible for all pro rata distributions to date. The SIPA Trustee must set aside sufficient funds for this scenario; thus the related pool of monies being held in reserve in the Customer Fund is currently approximately $3.036 billion under a 9 percent time-based damages scenario and approximately $1.861 billion under a 3 percent time-based damages scenario.

The SIPA Trustee has recovered or reached agreements to recover more than $9.1 billion, equivalent to approximately $7 million a day for BLMIS customers since his appointment in December 2008. These recoveries exceed prior recovery efforts related to all other Ponzi schemes, in terms of dollar value and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

To date, the SIPA Trustee in the BLMIS liquidation has distributed more than $1.1 billion to Bernard Madoff’s victims. The first interim pro rata distribution of approximately $335.5 million in recovered monies from the BLMIS Customer Fund to BLMIS customers – on allowed claims relating to 1,243 accounts, or about 4.6 percent of each allowed claim amount, unless the claim has been fully satisfied – commenced on October 5, 2011. In addition, the SIPA Trustee has paid approximately $802.3 million in advances from SIPC to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.

“Additional, significant interim distributions are still ahead for the victims of the Madoff fraud,” said Mr. Picard. “We anticipate recovering more stolen assets through litigation and settlements. Final resolution of disputes will permit us to reduce reserve amounts and distribute those funds to customers in the future. As these uncertainties are resolved, we will seek authorization for further allocations and distributions as quickly as possible.”

Information on overall recoveries to date, each settlement, the appeal status of a particular settlement and many other issues can be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website: www.madofftrustee.com.

A copy of the Customer Fund Allocation and Distribution Motion is available on the SIPA Trustee's website at http://www.madofftrustee.com as well as on the United States Bankruptcy Court’s website at http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/; docket number Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 08-01789 (BRL).

A hearing on the motion has been set for August 22, 2012.

In addition to Mr. Sheehan, other Baker Hostetler attorneys who worked on the distribution and related filings include: Seanna Brown, Jorian Rose, Jacqlyn Rovine, Thomas Wearsch, Bik Cheema and Brian Bash.

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Sipc: $61 Million in Commitments Made to Madoff Claimants, With $100 Million Level Expected to be Reached by Memorial Day

Trustee Madoff, SIPC President Harbeck Provide Update on Liquidation Proceeding

NEW YORK CITY & WASHINGTON, D.C. May 14, 2009 - Even as forensic accountants and lawyers continue to untangle what is believed to be the most complicated and far-reaching financial fraud in U.S. history, a total of $61,409,834.50 of Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) funds already has been committed in determination letters sent to 125 claimants in the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) liquidation proceeding for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), according to Irving H. Picard, the court-appointed trustee, and SIPC President Stephen Harbeck.

In a briefing today for reporters, Picard and Harbeck said that the commitment of SIPC funds is expected to reach or exceed the $100 million level by Memorial Day. As of yesterday, a total of 8,848 customer claims have so far been filed in connection with 3,565 customer accounts at BLMIS. SIPC maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms. Picard and Harbeck emphasized that forensic accounting experts and legal teams are working as quickly as possible to catalog all of the far-reaching aspects of the BLMIS investment fraud scheme, recover all available assets and make payments to investors, as provided for under the terms of SIPA.

In addition to the payments now either made or in the works, Picard and Harbeck highlighted the following recent developments:

• Identification and recovery to date of a total of $1 billion in Madoff-related assets.

Related proceeds will be available as “customer property” to make payments to eligible BLMIS customers.

• The filing of lawsuits to recover $10.1 billion in fictitious profits paid out by BLMIS.

These funds also would be made available as customer property in order to satisfy valid BLMIS customer claims. That total includes lawsuits filed this week naming various trust funds and partnerships run by investor Jeffry M. Picower and the Harley International hedge fund.

• Expansion of the SIPC Fund.

SIPC is committed to advancing funds immediately upon the trustee’s request. Harbeck assured claimants that SIPC will have sufficient funds to carry out this mission. The SIPC Board of Directors has authorized the reinstitution of revenue-based assessments on members of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

• The creation of a “hardship case” process. Instituted in recent days by the Trustee, this process is intended to expedite the handling of claims from individuals in financial or other distress. SIPC President Harbeck said:

“This is an unprecedented undertaking, but I believe that we can now say that we are at ‘the end of the beginning’ in this incredibly complicated case. Since its inception, SIPC has commenced 322 proceedings. Cash and securities totaling approximately $160 billion dollars have been distributed to customers in those proceedings. Of that amount, approximately $159.7 billion came from the debtors' estates and $323.8 million came from the SIPC Fund. As these numbers make clear, much of the work done by every trustee and his or her counsel is identifying and gathering the assets of the member and distributing them in a fair and equitable way to all customers of the failed brokerage.”

BLMIS Trustee Irving H. Picard said: “As the largest and most complex securities fraud in history, BLMIS presents many unique difficulties rarely encountered in the typical failure of a broker or dealer. Due to the fact that every customer statement was a fiction, the first task was to reconstruct the books and records of BLMIS from scratch. This entails reconstructing every customer account from the ground up using BLMIS records, bank statements, emails, records from third parties as well as documents received from customers through the customer claims process. This has been and continues to be an enormously time consuming endeavor.”

Picard added:
“I have a statutory duty to treat fairly all BLMIS customers and part of that duty requires pulling together the largest possible fund of customer property from which to make payments. This includes the duty to investigate, and, where appropriate, go to court to recover from persons or entities who received more than their share. In actual fact, persons who are subject to these recovery efforts actually received money stolen from others. Congress specifically requires that these funds must be returned so that all customers share equally.”

Picard added:
“I cannot listen only to the pleas of those investors who are demanding preferential consideration in this process. The Trustee has been urged by some, but certainly not all, claimants to use the last monthly statement issued by BLMIS as the basis for his determination of customer claims. To do so would benefit longer-term customers at the expense of shorter term customers. It would allow a certain favored few who received compounded annual returns at substantially higher rates than other customers to also benefit. This would in effect allow Bernie Madoff to determine which entities would get a larger proportion of customer property. This would do extreme prejudice to persons who put cash into the scheme relatively recently. That may be fine for those investors who would benefit disproportionately from such an approach, but it is not what fairness and Congress dictate in this situation.”

Picard and Harbeck also sought to dispel incorrect information surrounding the BLMIS liquidation proceeding:

• Trustee expenses are not paid out of customer property.

Harbeck said: “Contrary to what has been suggested by some entirely ill-informed parties, all of the expenses of this work have been paid for by SIPC. Customer funds are never used to pay for administrative expenses in a liquidation proceeding.”

• SIPC does not provide a $500,000 “insurance” policy.

Harbeck explained: “The maximum $500,000 dollar advance available under SIPA is not ‘insurance’ as some have incorrectly described it. SIPA provides that the SIPC Fund will protect a customer up to $500,000, of which up to $100,000 may be cash. Thus, if a customer’s account balance is less than $500,000, that customer would only receive the amount allowed on the claim, not the full $500,000 advance.”

For more information about SIPC liquidation proceedings, see "The Investor's Guide to Brokerage Firm

Liquidations" at http://www.sipc.org/pdf/SIPC_brochure_Investors_Guide_To_BD_Liquidations.pdf.

ABOUT SIPC

The Securities Investor Protection Corporation is the U.S. investor's first line of defense in the event a brokerage firm fails, owing customer cash and securities that are missing from customer accounts. SIPC either acts as trustee or works with an independent court-appointed trustee in a brokerage insolvency case to recover funds.

The statute that created SIPC provides that customers of a failed brokerage firm receive all nonnegotiable securities - such as stocks or bonds -- that are already registered in their names or in the process of being registered. At the same time, funds from the SIPC reserve are available to satisfy the remaining claims of each customer up to a maximum of $500,000. This figure includes a maximum of $100,000 on claims for cash. From the time Congress created it in 1970 through December 2008, SIPC has advanced $520 million in order to make possible the recovery of $160 billion in assets for an estimated 761,000 investors.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Leslie Anderson, (703) 276-3256 or landerson@hastingsgroup.com.

INVESTOR CONTACTS:

All investor inquires related to the BLMIS liquidation should be directed to
http://www.madofftrustee.com. All investor inquiries of SIPC should be directed to
asksipc@sipc.org or (202) 371-8300.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

A streaming audio recording of the news event will be available on the Web
as of 4 p.m. EDT on May 14, 2009 at http://www.sipc.org.

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Major Milestone: Over Half a Billion Dollars Advanced by SIPC So Far To Madoff Customers

BLMIS Payouts Now in the Works Exceed the Total of All 321 Previous Proceedings Since Start of SIPC in 1970; In Madoff Case, the Number of Determined Claims Nears 3,000.

NEW YORK CITY & WASHINGTON, D.C. October 28, 2009 - As of noon EDT Tuesday, the total amount of Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) advances committed to customers in the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) liquidation proceeding for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) has topped half a billion dollars ($534.25 million), with a total of 2,861 direct customer claims determined to date, according to BLMIS Trustee Irving H. Picard, who is a partner of Baker & Hostetler LLP.

In another major milestone: Securities Investor Protection Corporation President Stephen Harbeck announced that the SIPC advances committed in the Madoff proceeding now exceeds the total of all advances made in the 321 prior liquidations handled under SIPA since the act creating the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) was passed by Congress in 1970.

In a briefing today for reporters, Picard and Harbeck, said that as of noon EDT on October 27, 2009, SIPC committed advances to Madoff customers now totals $534,250,113.22. In SIPC's previous liquidations of brokerage firms from 1970 up to the time of the Madoff case, a total of $520 million has been advanced to pay customers and for the expenses of those cases.

The $534.25 million in committed advances for the allowed customer claims determined so far against BLMIS is a subset of the total allowed claim figure of $4,436,428,689.94. BLMIS Trustee Irving H. Picard said:

“I am pleased to report that we have made significant headway in recent months in the processing of BLMIS customer claims under what have been very challenging circumstances. With more than $4.43 billion in customer claims already allowed and advances of over half a billion dollars committed by SIPC, the Trustee’s office is working tirelessly to ensure that every BLMIS customer with a valid claim is given full consideration and handled as expeditiously as possible. That will continue to be our focus in the coming weeks and months.”

SIPC President Harbeck said:

“The fact that one liquidation proceeding has now involved more in advances from SIPC’s reserve than all 321 of the liquidations that preceded it is a testament to both the wisdom of those who created this safety net for investors and the resiliency of the safety net itself. Much of the work done by every trustee and his or her counsel is identifying and gathering the assets of the member and distributing them in a fair and equitable way to all customers of the failed brokerage. Trustee Picard, his counsel and consultants have done admirably in a difficult proceeding to deliver on SIPC’s mission.”

SIPC maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms.

For more information about SIPC liquidation proceedings, see "The Investor's Guide to Brokerage Firm Liquidations"
at http://www.sipc.org/pdf/SIPC_brochure_Investors_Guide_To_BD_Liquidations.pdf.

ABOUT SIPC

The Securities Investor Protection Corporation is the U.S. investor's first line of defense in the event a brokerage firm fails, owing customer cash and securities that are missing from customer accounts. SIPC either acts as trustee or works with an independent court-appointed trustee in a brokerage insolvency case to recover funds.

The statute that created SIPC provides that customers of a failed brokerage firm receive all nonnegotiable securities - such as stocks or bonds -- that are already registered in their names or in the process of being registered. At the same time, funds from the SIPC reserve are available to satisfy the remaining claims of each customer up to a maximum of $500,000. This figure includes a maximum of $100,000 on claims for cash. From the time Congress created it in 1970 through December 2008, SIPC has advanced $520 million in order to make possible the recovery of $160 billion in assets for an estimated 761,000 investors.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Ailis Aaron Wolf, (703) 276-3265 or aawolf@hastingsgroup.com.

INVESTOR CONTACTS:

All investor inquires related to the BLMIS liquidation should be directed to http://www.madofftrustee.com.
All investor inquiries of SIPC should be directed to asksipc@sipc.org or (202) 371-8300.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

A streaming audio recording of the news event will be available on the Web
as of 5 p.m. EDT on October 28, 2009 at http://www.sipc.org.

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Press release from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

THIRD INTERIM PRO RATA DISTRIBUTION OF RECOVERED FUNDS
TO MADOFF CLAIMS HOLDERS
TOTALS APPROXIMATELY $506.2 MILLION

More Than Half of BLMIS Accounts with Allowed Claims Fully Satisfied
Through Aggregate Distributions of Approximately $5.44 Billion

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – April 1, 2013 – Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC said today that the third pro rata interim distribution of recoveries from the Customer Fund to eligible BLMIS customers commenced on Friday, March 29, 2013.

In the third interim distribution, the SIPA Trustee is distributing approximately $506.2 million on a pro rata basis to BLMIS account holders with allowed claims, bringing the amount distributed to eligible claimants to $5.44 billion, which includes approximately $807.2 million in committed advances from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). When combined with the funds previously returned to BLMIS customers, the distribution fully satisfies more than 50 percent of the total current accounts with allowed claims.

In the third distribution, allowed claim holders will receive approximately 4.721 percent of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied. Currently, 2,178 account holders have allowed claims and, of these account holders, 1,106 will be fully satisfied following the third interim distribution. The average payment in this distribution is approximately $459,000 and the largest payment is approximately $116 million.

“This distribution is another important milestone in the global Madoff Recovery Initiative,” said Mr. Picard. “Significant recoveries remain on hold, however, pending appeals and court rulings. Our twin priorities are not only to continue building the Customer Fund with additional recoveries, but also to keep pushing hard for resolutions that will enable further distributions this year.”

“This is one of the most difficult, complex and time-consuming cases in history and SIPC’s deep involvement and its funding of the litigation have contributed significantly to the recoveries that have been achieved,” said Stephen P. Harbeck, president and CEO of SIPC. “The SIPA Trustee’s priorities are the same as SIPC’s, to recover and distribute funds as quickly as possible to BLMIS customers with allowed claims.”

Funds for the third distribution are drawn primarily from the allocation of approximately $1.2 billion from the Tremont Funds settlement and other funds recovered by the SIPA Trustee since the second interim distribution in September 2012 through February 28, 2013.

“While we cannot predict the timing of the next distribution, we expect that 2013 will bring significant advances on a number of legal fronts, particularly in international matters,” said David J. Sheehan, Chief Counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “We are confident in our legal positions and we look forward to more good news this year for BLMIS customers.”

Approximately $3.626 billion has been distributed to date to BLMIS accountholders with allowed claims through the second pro rata interim distribution and approximately $499.8 million through the first pro rata interim distribution.

The SIPA Trustee has recovered or reached agreements to recover approximately $9.320 billion since December 2008, representing more than 53 percent of the approximately $17.5 billion in principal estimated to have been lost in the Ponzi scheme by BLMIS customers who filed claims. These recoveries exceed similar efforts related to prior Ponzi schemes, in terms of dollar value and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

One hundred percent of the SIPA Trustee’s recoveries will be allocated to the Customer Fund for distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. All administrative costs of the SIPA liquidation of BLMIS have been funded by SIPC. Recoveries for the Customer Fund are paid to BLMIS customers in accordance with SIPA.

Messrs. Picard and Sheehan would like to thank Seanna Brown and Heather Wlodek, BakerHostetler attorneys who worked on the third pro rata interim distribution and its related filings. They would also like to thank Vineet Sehgal and his colleagues at AlixPartners for their ongoing work on the SIPA liquidation.

Further information on the ongoing Madoff Recovery Initiative can be found on the SIPA Trustee’s website: www.madofftrustee.com.

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Amanda Remus, spokeswoman for the SIPA Trustee & his Counsel at BakerHostetler:

For any information regarding the Madoff Victim Fund, Special Master Richard C. Breeden, and forfeitures to the U.S. Department of Justice in the Madoff Ponzi scheme criminal cases, please visit www.madoffvictimfund.com or contact:

Madoff Victim Fund
P.O. Box 6310
Syracuse, New York 13217

(866) 624-3670

info@madoffvictimfund.com

Their customer service team can be reached Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5 pm EST.

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Statement from the office of Irving H. Picard, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS)

Attributable to Amanda Remus, spokeswoman for the SIPA Trustee & his Counsel at BakerHostetler:

For any information regarding Special Master Richard C. Breeden and forfeitures to the U.S. Department of Justice in the Madoff Ponzi scheme criminal cases, please visit www.madoffvictimfund.com or contact:

Wendy Olsen Clancy
Victim/Witness Coordinator
United States Attorney's Office
One St. Andrew's Plaza
New York, New York 10007
(866) 874-8900
Wendy.Olsen@usdoj.gov

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 A Message from the SIPA Trustee’s Chief Counsel, David J. Sheehan

Bernard Madoff’s unprecedented fraud stretched far and wide. Our recovery efforts and lawsuits are not only taking place here in the United States; our work extends around the globe, including Austria, England, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Spain, and the Caribbean.

With so many actions and jurisdictions involved, this liquidation is one of the most complex recovery efforts ever undertaken. Thousands of parties are involved, and probably a comparable number of reporters, bloggers and assorted commentators are covering Madoff-related news worldwide. Given the number of participants in this unfolding story with differing agendas, it is not surprising that some of the public statements and coverage are misleading or incorrect.

With that in mind, I will use this column, today and in the future, to clarify and comment on key issues. In this message, I’d like to address two important topics that have gotten a great deal of media attention.

First and foremost, I want to emphasize that every penny of the more than $9.1 billion recovered thus far through our efforts will ultimately be distributed to BLMIS customers with allowed claims. The professional fees of the SIPA Trustee, Irving H. Picard, and those of his counsel are not paid for by any of the funds recovered for the BLMIS Customer Fund – all fees and expenses incurred by the SIPA Trustee and his counsel in pursuit of recoveries are paid for out of a fund maintained by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Any assertion to the contrary is just plain wrong.

Second, I’d like to provide a brief overview of the status of the appellate process that affects the timing of payouts from the Customer Fund. On December 17, 2010, the SIPA Trustee and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced a historic settlement with the estate of Jeffry Picower in the amount of $7.2 billion. Of that amount, $5 billion was recovered by the Trustee while the remainder was forfeiture to the U.S. government. It is undisputed that this entire amount constituted fictitious profits – other people’s money – which rightfully belongs to the BLMIS customers who have, in the aggregate, filed claims for the more than $17 billion in principal which they lost.

Almost a year and a half later, the Picower settlement remains under appeal. As a result, billions of dollars that would be available for distribution to victims who never got their money back are being held up. When the appeals are finally resolved, the $5 billion will become available for allocation to the Customer Fund.

Even when that happens, however, the SIPA Trustee would only be able to distribute approximately 12 percent of the recovered funds due to the outstanding appeal of the net equity issue. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the decision of Judge Burton R. Lifland of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which affirmed the Trustee’s determination that in this liquidation, allowable customer claims, or “net equity” claims, are governed by the Net Investment Method – a “money in, money out” calculation formula. This means that those BLMIS customers who withdrew little or none of their principal are given a priority in distributions from the Customer Fund. Several parties sought to have the Second Circuit reconsider its opinion, but that request was denied. Currently there is an effort by appellants to have the ruling reviewed by the United States Supreme Court.

We believe that these appeals are without merit. Until they are finally concluded, however, the appeals inevitably delay the return of stolen funds to BLMIS customers. We will continue to do all we can to accelerate the process, clear the path and distribute funds as quickly as possible.

The SIPA Trustee’s primary goal is to make customers who have not yet received back all the funds they deposited into BLMIS whole. To that end, the SIPA Trustee and his counsel will continue to vigorously pursue all lawsuits, first, to fill the Customer Fund for the benefit of those customers who did not get their initial deposits back, and second, to create a General Estate in which all victims of Mr. Madoff’s fraud may share, excepting those who are found to have acted in bad faith.

To date, more than $1.1 billion has been returned to allowed claimants. While this may seem like a small step in the total recovery effort, it is just the beginning. We want to assure all of the victims of Mr. Madoff’s fraud that we will continue in our efforts to recover the maximum amount of funds possible, so that all victims may receive some recompense for the harms they suffered.

David J. Sheehan Updated May 18, 2012

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 A Message from the SIPA Trustee’s Chief Counsel, David J. Sheehan

July 12, 2012 - With the Supreme Court’s decision in late June to pass on a challenge to the equity calculation formula struck by the SIPA Trustee, the biggest hurdle to future distributions has now been removed. Though the occasion won’t make as many headlines as the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, it should be big news that Madoff’s investors are finally going to be getting more of their money back.

Unraveling the most massive global fraud of all time was never going to be an easy task, and at times progress has seemed frustratingly slow to Madoff’s victims. This is par for the course in any bankruptcy, with creditors fighting over a limited pool of assets available to satisfy their claims.

But the Madoff case has been orders of magnitude more complicated, due to the size, extent, and duration of the fraud. With so much money gone up in smoke the moment Madoff’s frauds were revealed, the legal infighting to recover false investment returns paid out by Madoff was destined to be fierce. There was also a real risk that the courts would hold much of the money to be beyond the reach of the Trustee, denying a meaningful recovery to those who hadn’t withdrawn funds before the collapse. Indeed, at the outset, some pundits expected recoveries of just pennies on the dollar and even that after a decade or more of litigation.

But the pundits were wrong. The results to date not only belie their worst-case scenario, but also reflect a recovery effort far more successful than nearly anyone expected.

The numbers truly speak for themselves. The Trustee has recovered or reached agreements to recover more than $9.1 billion for Madoff customers since his appointment in December 2008— equivalent to $7 million a day. These recoveries exceed prior recovery efforts related to all other Ponzi schemes, in terms of dollar value and percentage of stolen funds recovered.

But the best evidence may be the prices at which Madoff claims are trading on secondary markets. While many Madoff customers have held on to their claims, others sold them at a discount to investors so as to avoid the uncertainty and delay of the resolution process. To date, nearly $2.8 billion of allowed claims have been sold, the equivalent of approximately 40 percent of the claims allowed by the Trustee.

Since December 2010, when the Trustee announced a major settlement to recover money Madoff had paid out to investors before his firm collapsed, claims have been trading in excess of 60 cents on the dollar, an unusually high value in any bankruptcy case. And as more money has flowed to the Trustee, the value of Madoff claims has risen.

More of those recovered funds will soon be making their way to Bernard Madoff’s victims. To date, the Trustee has distributed more than $1.1 billion, with the first interim distribution in October 2011. That includes more than $802.3 million in advances requested on victims’ behalf by the Trustee.

But further distributions were stymied by legal challenges to the distribution formula meant to insure fair and equitable treatment of all Madoff’s customers. A small group of Madoff clients argued all the way to the Supreme Court that distributions should be based on the final set of account statements sent by Madoff Investments, reflecting years of fictional gains. That argument was soundly rejected by the Bankruptcy Court and Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear their final appeal settles the matter once and for all.

It also clears the way for further distributions to victims over time, amounting to billions of dollars. Additional billions in recoveries may yet come from litigation over pending claims.

Making right Bernard Madoff’s wrongs has been a long and complex process, and it has been understandably frustrating to both his victims and the public. A quick recovery was never in the cards, given the depths of the investigations required to trace Bernard Madoff’s fraud and the fact that parties involved in the bankruptcy always have the right to challenge the Trustee’s actions through slow-moving litigation. But it is time for the focus to shift to the substantial and important progress that has been made as we continue working toward further success.

David J. Sheehan
July 12, 2012

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3/08/2010: After full briefing by the Trustee, SIPC, the SEC and various customer claimants, both in support of and in opposition to the Trustee's motion regarding the proper interpretation of "net equity" under the Securities Investor Protection Act, and after a full hearing on the matter, the Honorable Burton R. Lifland, Bankruptcy Judge, issued an opinion on March 1, 2010 approving the Trustee's "net investment" method of determining customer claims in this proceeding. The Trustee has calculated each customer's "net equity" as the difference between the cash invested with BLMIS and the amounts withdrawn. The Court upheld this methodology, and rejected the argument made by certain claimants that customer claims must be allowed in the amounts shown on the final BLMIS customer statements. A copy of the opinion can be viewed by clicking here. The final resolution of this issue will be determined on appeal.

On March 8, 2010, Judge Lifland entered an order implementing that decision and certifying the order for immediate appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A copy of the order and certification can be viewed by clicking here. Notices of appeal have been filed.

All News and Press Release articles are available here.

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