Irving Picard, the lawyer seeking to recover money invested with alleged swindler Bernard Madoff, may take more than five years to pay all customers of the man accused of a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
The 67-year-old Picard is tackling the most complex fraud in the four-decade history of the Securities Investor Protection Corp., the government-backed corporation that hired him, SIPC President Stephen Harbeck said.
Picard was named trustee of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC on Dec. 15, four days after prosecutors said Madoff confessed to the crime. Picard was told to liquidate the brokerage, find assets and distribute them to Madoff’s customers.
Picard and lawyers from his firm, Baker Hostetler LLP, are reviewing records with the help of ex-employees at Madoff’s offices in Manhattan, a person familiar with the case said. Judges gave Picard power to seize assets and records, demand documents, summon witnesses and enter Madoff’s residences, including the apartment where he’s under house arrest.
So far, Picard and attorneys from Baker Hostetler, the Cleveland-based firm he joined the week he accepted the trustee job, have found $830 million in assets and sent letters to 8,000 potential claimants.
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