New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accused the Bernard Madoff brokerage trustee of trying to intimidate the state's top law enforcers in a bid to overturn a $410 million settlement with a former Ponzi- scheme investor, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Schneiderman on Aug. 31 asked a district judge to take over the case so he could complete the settlement of a state lawsuit against J. Ezra Merkin, who allegedly diverted customer funds to Madoff. Trustee Irving Picard has asked a bankruptcy judge to block the deal, saying that it obstructs his own efforts to collect $500 million from Merkin and his funds for a different group of Madoff investors.
