Steven Simkin's Can't Recover Madoff Millions From Ex-Wife Laura Blank: Judge

NEW YORK — A judge says a prominent New York City lawyer can't recover money he paid in a divorce agreement when he believed he and his ex-wife had millions of dollars invested with Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf).

Steven Simkin says he gave Laura Blank $6.6 million as her share of marital assets in July 2006 after more than 30 years of marriage. The figure included $2.7 million that was half the value of Simkin's Madoff account.

But the account with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities was empty. Madoff later admitted cheating thousands of investors and was imprisoned.

A Manhattan Supreme Court justice ruled Blank didn't have to "shoulder her share" of the Madoff losses and threw out the case.

Simkin heads the real estate department at the well-known law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.