Bernard Madoff’s cheated investors will receive another multimillion-dollar payout, bringing their total recoveries since the collapse of his Ponzi scheme to nearly $9.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein authorized the seventh payout to investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and the order means that liquidation trustee Irving Picard can mail out checks worth $171 million to investors, expected for mid-July. Another $76 million will be held in reserve for future distribution. The latest distribution will bring total investor recoveries to about $9.45 billion of more than $17 billion in stolen principal. Picard has been leading efforts to track down stolen funds since shortly after the collapse of Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme in December 2008. He has recovered more than $11 billion, but some of those funds haven’t yet been paid out to investors. Madoff was arrested in December 2008 on charges of running a Ponzi scheme, the biggest of all time. He pleaded guilty in May 2009 and was later sentenced to 150 years in prison. He is serving his sentence at the federal prison in Butner, N.C.
