A federal judge has blocked litigation that the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's firm said could undermine a $7.2 billion settlement meant to benefit the Ponzi schemer's former customers.
The trustee recovering money for Bernard Madoff's victims on Monday announced a settlement to recoup $93 million from a "feeder fund" that sent client money to the swindler's firm, boosting the total sum raised to roughly $10.65 billion.
Jurors in the trial of five former Bernard Madoff employees were shown video clips of the con man telling participants at a conference in 2007 that fraud on Wall Street was “virtually impossible.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co., which agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle claims that it facilitated Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, “failed miserably” as a financial institution, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Bernard Madoff’s former accountant pleaded not guilty to charges he helped the convicted con man carry out a Ponzi scheme, less than two weeks before the start of a trial of five ex-employees who are accused of aiding the fraud.
Government investigators have found that JPMorgan Chase devised “manipulative schemes” that transformed “money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers.”
What Mary Schapiro considered her most important task had just run aground, a symbol of the aspirations and missed opportunities of her tenure as head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
