The trustee cleaning up after Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, and dozens of investors he is suing, are revisiting the central question of finding out when Madoff started stealing, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Since Madoff’s 2008 arrest, liquidating trustee Irving Picard has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against customers of the phantom investment firm who collected more in Ponzi-scheme proceeds than they invested. Most have been resolved through settlements. Of the 147 defendants that are still holding out, 92 are pointing to sworn testimony obtained through a court-authorized deposition from Mr. Madoff in 2016 and 2017 in the North Carolina prison where he is serving a 150-year sentence. The fraudster’s statements are touching off an investigation that could offer fresh details into the machinations inside his firm. The holdouts’ defense against Picard turns largely on when Madoff stopped buying and selling securities and embarked on his infamous fraud. The trustee has calculated how much each defendant owes based on the amount of fictitious profits he or she received — subtracting the stolen money received from the funds put in.
