Madoff Suicide Won't Stop Civil Lawsuits
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The court-appointed trustee recovering assets for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme will move ahead with lawsuits brought against his elder son Mark Madoff, who killed himself Saturday morning, a lawyer for the trustee said.
"The litigation will take its course and the death of Mark Madoff will not impact that fact," the lawyer, David Sheehan, said in an email Sunday.
That the trustee intends to pursue the suits is not surprising. Among the hundreds targeted in suits by the trustee, Irving Picard, in recent weeks are estates of former Madoff investors.
After the September death of Stanley Chais, a California money manager who fed clients' funds to Mr. Madoff, for example, Mr. Picard said he would continue litigation that sought $1.1 billion from Mr. Chais and related entities. Mr. Chais had denied any wrongdoing.
On Saturday, Mr. Picard said: "This is a tragic development, and my sympathy goes out to Mark Madoff's family."
Almost a year after the multi-billion dollar fraud conducted by his father, Bernard Madoff, was publicly revealed on Dec. 11, 2008, both Mark and his brother Andrew Madoff were sued by Mr. Picard. Mr. Picard accused Mark Madoff in the October 2009 lawsuit of receiving at least $66.9 million improperly through Bernard Madoff's investment company.
His lawyer has called the suit baseless and has sought to have it dismissed.
