Madoff Victims Sue Trustee Picard: Read The Complaint (VIDEO)

The NY post reports that three victims of Bernie Madoff are seeking millions in damages from Irving Picard, the trustee in charge of dismantling the Madoff investment scandal. The three investors claim that Picard is "cold and calculating" and that he strong-armed them into taking less money than they deserved. The victims, Maureen Ebel, and Roger and Diane Peskin, are adamant that they are getting shortchanged.

Earlier this year, Vanity Fair spoke to several Madoff vicitms, including Maureen Ebel. Ebel begins the below video by saying that she's now "penniless," and adds that Madoff once called her and said, "Maureen, all of your investment worries are over."

WATCH:

Check out the original complaint filed by Ebel and the Peskins, which includes some strong attacks against Picard:

"Plaintiffs were defrauded by Madoff, prepetition, out of their life savings. Now, they are being victimized postpetition by Picard who is improperly acting to protect the brokerage industry represented by SIPC at plaintiffs' expense"

READ the lawsuit documents below:

061109madoffcomplaint -

Read the full story of the Madoff victims' suit at the NY Post.

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Comments

[LTBROWN]

Victims? What victims? victims, that would be us. Some where down the line it's going to be us.

[mateoconifer]

Bernie's victims are the greediest of the greedy. It comes as no surprise that this is how it is evolving. Avarice, pure and simple.

[poliguy70130]

Ah yes, let the pity party continue. Is all everyone elses fault, forget personal resposibility.

[davidwayneosedach]

They are fighting a hopeless cause. The money is G.O.N.E. It is gone.

[frantaylor]

If you want to change the market, you have to teach it a lesson, otherwise it will never change.

[newyorkid]

Dennis Ross like Rahm Emanuel vvorks for lsrael.

[larry278]

Re: HP's headline for this blog: Madoff's investors will settle far a fair recovery of what Bernies stole from them. Others want Bernie to be convicted & sentenced to life +50 years with no parole 30 feet under the fed super-max at Florence, Co. They'd have to pipe light into his cell; the kind of cell that has concrete furnishings. Madoff isn't a nice man.

[chicagurl]

The first time I went to invest in stocks, the broker told me never to put money into stocks that I couldn't afford to lose. There are no guarantees and stocks can go up, or down. Doesn't everyone know this?

[E-MU]

That's different from fraud and theft.

[chicagurl]

True, spaced there for a bit. You're right, different scenario, and I do hope something comes out of this for these folks.

[Montgriz]

That used to be true....th­e people who invested with Madoff seemed to do so because they thought he was one of them and would never cheat a co religionis­t....they did not do their due diligence so they should not recover a damn thing! I took a hit a while back on an energy company that was a leader in its field but was sold a bill of goods by Wall St and politicians to abandon that and go for high tech communicat­ions...iro­nically, it was the relatives and pals of the politicians that benefited when Montana Power went Bk....clea­rly, there was intent to fraud, but nothing was done...I lost and many others did too.....we did not sue because it was useless.. These people are different.­..historic­ally...

[frantaylor]

If Madoff hadn't taken their money, the market would have taken it anyway.

[Montgriz]

We still have not been told where the billions went...how do you move money like that and have no one in Washington know....I have a feeling israeli played a roll here, but that is because I loathe zionism...

[BrwnSknGurl4]

The advice you were given is correct, but not an apples to apples comparison here. Madoff NEVER INVESTED A DIME OF THE MONEY he was given by unknowing investors. He simply pocketed it, and printed phony investment documents to suggest gains and/or losses in the market. He literally STOLE the money.

[roger54]

Take back the trillions of $$$ given to the banks, who just sit on it and make it totally ineffective then start government incentive to create realistic industries that give employment and generate real productive income, some of which would hopefully be from exports.

Every other country, especially China and most of Europe have goverment incentives to protect it's industries. No matter what you call it it's a form of protectionism and its inevitable. We should stop being naive and take care of our own house. The only ones who win if we don't are the multinational corporations who don't care where they get their hand out.

good articles for a slow news day: http://www.bit.ly/12t.ly/12NCJR>Econ & Finance Articles Updated Daily

[frantaylor]

There used to be a concept in economics called "Industrial Policy" but here it is lost among the various fraudulent concepts like "Supply-Side Economics" and "Too Big To Fail"

[roger54]

sucks to be them

good financial articles

[roger54]

too bad for them I guess


good financial articles

[xrepublican]

It seems like most of these people ARE getting what they originally invested back - which puts them ahead of almost anyone who was legitimately invested in the market. Nobody is bailing me out of MY 401K losses - which were legitimate. I have LESS than my original investment - which makes me woerse off than the Madoff investors.


Their ORIGINAL investment is protected, NOT the fraudulent - and NONEXISTENT - returns. People should be THRILLED simply to get their original investments back. To demand that they STILL collect the nonexistent FRAUDULENT returns is delusional.

Those complaining the loudest have already withdrawn MORE than they invested - claiming what were in effect fraudulent returns. The trustee - RIGHTFULLY - wants them to return these non-existent profits (which was other people's original 'investment').

If it seems too good to be true, it is, and in this case clearly was.

[Harold Stone]

--It seems like most of these people ARE getting what they originally invested back - which puts them ahead of almost anyone who was legitimately invested in the market.

Interesting. I had been wondering about this. In theory, whatever money he took in, minus what he personally spent, minus what he paid as dividends (evidently not a lot, since most of his investors opted to roll their dividends back into the fund) should be available for return to the victims. If they can find Madoff's assets, that formula would probably leave many of the victims with more money than they would have had if they had invested in a mutual fund.

[plaidsportcoat]

ever heard of consumables?

[jeffp26]

With all due respect to these folks, the way they gave their money to Madoff to manage, they should not be entitled to anything from SIPC.

SIPC is supposed to protect brokerage clients, for instance, in the event Merrill Lynch went bankrupt, and the money in their Merrill accounts disappeared. But the Madoff accounts were not brokerage accounts.

So this case will be tossed summarily, and they just pissed away some of the money they did get, paying some lowlife attorney.

[frantaylor]

probably court costs, too. This lawsuit falls squarely in the "frivolous" category.

[Pete Goldfinger]

Let me ask you this:

If Madoff was an SEC approved SIPC protected brokerage, such as Smith Barney, then would you say they are entitled to SIPC money?

[frantaylor]

If that were so, then they would have had some sort of at least semi-bogus auditing going on and he would not have been able to get away with this.

[jeffp26]

No because they did not lose their money because the brokerage went bankrupt.

They gave Madoff discretion to trade their accounts. He committed fraud.

Thus SIPC really owes them nothing.

I promise you if a broker at Citibank sent out fraudulent statements, committed fraud, etc. you might get money back from Citi, but SIPC would laugh in your face.

These people are already getting special treatment. They need to grow up and take responsibility for their own losses.

[caphillprof]

I just noticed that Bernie has a passing resemblance to George Washington (particularly the Gilbert Stuart).

[frantaylor]

So did the guy at Huffpo with the airbrush.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

We may never see the main event, which should be Chris Cox in jail, next to Bernie.

[DamaskinosLives]

The FEDS failed to do their job when they ignored Markopolos ( good greek name ).

The FEDS should make every investor completely whole because they failed to do their job.

[frantaylor]

I suppose you will be the first in line to sign up for the tax increases that will be necessary to pay for your little bonanza for undeserving gamblers.

[skippypicasso]

Could you expand on the idea that Madoff's victims were 'gamblers'? How?