Canada – Madoff Trustee Wants Montreal Firm to Pursue Canadian Assets

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    (CBS/iStockphoto)Montreal, Canada – Bernard Madoff’s investment firm had assets in Canada, and the trustee liquidating the imprisoned Ponzi schemer’s business is looking to hire a Montreal law firm to recover them.

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    In a filing with Manhattan bankruptcy court, lawyers for the trustee, Irving Picard, asked for permission to hire Kugler Kandestin LLP as special counsel to represent him in Canadian proceedings.

    “The trustee has become aware of assets that he believes to be customer property located in Canada and requires counsel to pursue such customer property,” the filing said.

    It is unclear from the filing what the assets are and of what value.

    Gordon Levine, a partner at Kugler Kandestin, in the filing said the firm would provide advice on locating funds and file lawsuits to recover assets from third parties.

    The Securities Investor Protection Corp., an agency that helps recover assets from failed brokerages, hired Mr. Picard to recover assets for victims of what investigators have called Madoff’s US$65-billion Ponzi scheme.

    As of Jan. 7, Mr. Picard said he had approved 1,690 claims worth US$4.79-billion, and rejected 9,962 claims. Hundreds of Madoff victims have said Mr. Picard was undervaluing their claims. A hearing on his methods is scheduled for Feb. 2.

    In October, Mr. Picard said he had recovered US$1.4-billion of Madoff assets — or 7% of the US$21.2-billion of identified investor losses. The SIPC can pay victims up to US$500,000 each.

    Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty last March and is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison.


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    1 Comment
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Lets get real here, is it really impossible to find and try to access the assets without paying another huge Atty plus overhead?