The U.S. Justice Department fund set up to help victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme received 51,700 claims seeking some of the $4 billion forfeited since the swindle collapsed, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. In total, the claims received by the April 30 filing deadline represent $40 billion lost to the fraud, said Richard Breeden, who was appointed to handle distributions. Many of the claims were filed by banks or fund managers who “are not generally eligible” to share in the forfeited money, Breeden said. He hasn’t yet reviewed the claims to throw out the defective ones, he said.
