It seems that Madoff's victims will finally have their day in court and that date is now set for February 2, 2010. The court has scheduled a hearing that day between the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff's firm and the victims of his Ponzi scheme to see how much each victim will receive in restitution. I have posted about the trustee, Mr. Picard before here. His is not an enviable task.
2 comments:
Let's not start feeling sorry for Irving Picard whose law firm will be raking in, at its present rate, nearly $50 million this year!
To me, that makes it sound quite enviable.
Upon discovering that SIPC never assessed a fraction of what it needed from its member security companies in order to fulfill its statutes to pay investors, there choice became very clear. Either they had to call upon their credit lines or reinvent the formula as to how investors should be paid, despite a long history of having it done under the original statutes of SIPA (Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970).
With the power of the media, the support of gov't agencies (SEC)(DOJ) and the ignorance of Congress, Picard proceeded to do what SIPC President Stephen Harbeck decided. Save SIPC and screw the investors.
The only problem has been that many of the investors don't like getting victimized multiple times.
Sadly for the investors, it appears that the "fix" is in for their day in court on 02/02/10 since the presiding judge, Burton Lifland, is not coming in with his "judicial blinders" on and its already a pretty foregone conclusion as to how he will rule.
This will be appealed by the investors. Tragically, when you are old and very poor, waiting another year on an appeal can be a life sentence. Even if Lifland agrees that Picard is wrong (perhaps in an alternate universe), chances are Picard will appeal the ruling, so the investors essentially lose this way too.
Why can't the law simply be followed and the SIPC Trustee just do what it was Congress' original intent. How ironic that Congress jumped on the bandwagon of saving those companies deemed to large to fail, that were failing because of the combination of their extreme greed and the knowledge that they would be bailed out, whereas the Madoff investors, who were stolen from, who are not asking for a bailout, cannot even get the money that is due them from SIPC.
Is there a lesson to be learned here?
The United States government is corrupt! Is about to run out of money on 9/30/2009.
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