A US federal appeals court has rejected Madoff trustee Irving Picard’s bid to recover nearly US$30 billion from JPMorgan Chase and other banks he accused of aiding in the swindler’s fraud.
The court-appointed trustee seeking to recoup money for victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, had sought to recover ‘mega-billions’ from the banks arguing that they had ignored red flags of Madoff’s fraud because they wanted to earn banking fees.
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But the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Picard can’t sue because of the doctrine of in pari delicto.
"Picard stands in the shoes of BLMIS and may not assert claims against third parties for participating in a fraud that BLMIS orchestrated," according to the ruling. BLMIS is the former securities firm of Madoff, who orchestrated the biggest Ponzi scheme in US history.
Picard, who has the option of asking a larger panel of the appeals court to reconsider the case or bring the issue to the US Supreme Court, is ‘currently reviewing’ the decision, a spokeswoman said.
Picard and a team of lawyers have spent more than four years untangling an international Ponzi scheme that spanned decades and victimized thousands of customers.
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By GlobalDataAccording to his website, Picard secured more than US$9.3 billion of the estimated US$17.5 billion that thousands of investors put into Madoff’s sham investment business.
Madoff, 75, is serving a 150-year prison term.
