The trustee recovering funds for investors cheated by Bernard Madoff is urging a judge not to dismiss his suit against an accounting firm that had close ties to Madoff, saying that its principals were a "crucial part of the machinery" that kept the Ponzi scheme going, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Lawyers for trustee Irving Picard said in a court filing on Thursday that former Madoff principal Frank Avellino and partner Michael S. Bienes ran the first feeder funds that pooled investor cash and funneled the money to Madoff. Picard's 13-count amended complaint, filed in November, seeks a total of about $900 million from Mr. Avellino, Bienes, and their wives and other relatives and related entities. Most of the charges are for the transfers of money Picard says the parties received. Picard said that Avellino started investing with Madoff as far back as 1962. In the Thursday filing urging against dismissal of the complaint, Picard's lawyers said, "Avellino and Bienes were not innocent victims of Madoff's fraud. Instead, they had actual knowledge of the fraud and actively assisted Madoff in concealing it from government regulators who were closing in on the truth."
