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Local Law Firms Home > Probate Law News > Distributing Madoff Investors' Estates After Probate Bernard Madoff's fate is sealed with a 150 year prison term, but the mess he made is still being sorted out as his investors die and their estates go through the probate process under the watchful eye of a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge. One of these investors is Jeffry Picower, who drowned in 2009 and forfeited his estate to the U.S. and Madoff's brokerage trustee Irving Picard. A class-action lawsuit filed in Florida to get direct access to Picower's estate was thrown out by the Madoff Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan. He said his bankruptcy court retains the sole rights to the administration and distribution of the Madoff estate and that of his investors who have been found guilty of knowingly benefiting from Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The ruling allows Picard to retain his exclusive right to sue, recover and distribute money to customers. So far, Picard has collected close on $9 billion, which he says is not available for distribution because of court challenges. He had his law firm distribute about $330 million from Madoff's estate, after charging $273 million for its liquidation. Another cog in the Madoff operation was Stanley Chais, who had been accused of siphoning $1 billion from Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Chais was a money manager who operated feeder funds that collected money and funneled it through for investment into Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Stanley Chais died in 2010, and his estate is now under siege from both Picard and the California AG's office, which is suing the Chais estate for recovery of $270 million in illegal profits. This lawsuit hasn't yet been barred by the Madoff Bankruptcy Judge, since the lawsuit has been filed by the state of California and it is not clear whether the state's claim trumps a federal bankruptcy court's authority.
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