A federal appeals court said the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s firm may pursue dozens of lawsuits to recoup funds from Koch Industries Inc., controlled by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, and other defendants, including major banks, Reuters reported. Yesterday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned November 2016 dismissals by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein. It gives the trustee Irving Picard a chance to add hundreds of millions of dollars to the $13.36 billion he has recouped for former customers of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. The trustee has estimated that the customers lost $17.5 billion in Madoff’s fraud, which was uncovered in December 2008. Picard had sued Koch, HSBC Holdings Plc, UBS AG and others in 88 lawsuits to recoup funds traceable to the imprisoned swindler, but which had been sent outside the U.S. The lawsuits targeted foreign entities that had received Madoff-linked money from other foreign transferees, including “feeder funds” that sent client money to Madoff. Writing for a three-judge panel on Monday, Circuit Judge Richard Wesley said the later transfers qualified as domestic because the money originally came from Madoff’s firm.
