A federal judge on Tuesday ruled largely in favor of the trustee seeking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for Bernard Madoff's victims in 233 lawsuits that sought to recoup alleged fictitious profits generated by the Ponzi schemer's firm, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein said that trustee Irving Picard could try to claw back money that former customers who he calls "net winners" withdrew from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in the two years prior to that firm's December 2008 bankruptcy. Judge Bernstein rejected the argument that clawbacks should be limited because only a few Madoff employees knew of the fraud. "Once it is determined that a Ponzi scheme exists, all transfers made in furtherance of that Ponzi scheme are presumed to have been made with fraudulent intent," he wrote in his opinion. But the judge said Picard did not show he was presently entitled to recoup money from various "subsequent transferee" defendants who received sums originally withdrawn from Madoff's firm.
