Why Madoff’s ‘net winners’ need to watch their backs

In the hunt to find money to compensate those who lost their fortunes as a result of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the trustee in charge of overseeing the liquidation of Madoff’s asset management firm "could sue" 1,000 Madoff clients who he believes made a profit on their investments.
 
Despite a total of $65 billion (including fabricated gains) going missing from client accounts as a result of the Ponzi scheme, trustee Irving Picard has identified as many as 2,000 "net winners" – investors who took out more money than they put in.

He now says he could launch lawsuits against half of them to recover some of their profits. He has a deadline of this December to launch any such "clawback" suits - two years after Madoff’s initial arrest.
 
Picard's spokesman admitted that his boss would prefer to settle with the "net winners" rather than taking them to court, but response has not been great. "We have received few responses, if any, to our overtures," the spokesman said.
 
Read the full story at Reuters ·