Still recovering money stolen by Bernie Madoff

David Sheehan of has visited about a dozen times to Bernie Madoff in the prison Butner (North Carolina). Expect not to have to return.

“Is a sociopath ”, says a recent article in the The Wall Street Journal. “Do not think that it will cause no harm to anyone. In fact he believed that his plan would work, only that he escaped from the hands and could not control it,” he adds.

The authorities have distributed more than 15,000 million dollars from several thousands of victims

Sheehan, 74 years old, and Irving Picard, 77, described both as “grandparents twinkling”, take a decade immersed in a rescue mission. Are the two trustees of the bankruptcy that was commanded judicially to recover the maximum capital that Madoff, the adviser of the rich, he defrauded tens of thousands of people in the united States and throughout the world.

The name of Bernie Madoff, in his eighties and serving a sentence of 150 years in prison, is already synonymous with the biggest scam and the massive fraud through a Ponzi scheme or "pyramid" scheme. This December 11 marks the tenth anniversary of their arrest and the discovery of a “hole” encryption in about 64,000 million euros. All rushed when he confessed the disaster to his sons, Mark and Andrew, both now dead. Mark, 46, committed suicide in 2010 (just at the second anniversary), and Andrew died of a sudden cancer.

The goal is to achieve around 4,000 million and expected to finish the work throughout the 2019

One of the issues that most fascinate last over a decade is that both Sheehan and Picard, on the one hand, as the Department of Justice, on the other, they are still recovering the money and returning monies to victims.

To some and to others it is ground to go in order to detect more dollars lost by the greed of the manager and of the others took profits.

For example, the methodology of the board of trustees operates suing entities that may not have done anything illegal but who received improper payments, in particular, the capital that was intended to be the profitability of an investment and, with the Ponzi scheme, was no more than the money of another customer.

Of 17.500 million dollars, which consisted in the judicial claim, Sheehan and Picard have been found and dealt 13,300 million. According to their calculations, this means a ratio of 75 cents on the dollar. An achievement that is remarkable if one takes into account that Picard hoped to recover from five to ten cents on the dollar. This seems to be the usual amount in cases of a Ponzi scheme. Picard, who has previously participated in a dozen of settlements of this type, considered to have already fulfilled 70% of its task.

If this time has increased the percentage of recovery should be, according to his opinion, to the strategy that Madoff and lasted for decades. There is documentation that dates back to the seventies and that prove the plot.

the goal of achieving The 100% is not at all realistic, but they try. This past November, they appeared at a court of appeal to try to subvert the decision of judge of first instance denied the right to pursue the money of Madoff abroad. Of win, the operation will take them another five years.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice distributed at the beginning of this month to 695 million additional dollars. Thanks to this amount, the total divided by this pathway amounted to 2,000 million, distributed among some 27,000 victims across the globe.

The goal is to achieve around 4,000 million and expected to finish the work throughout the 2019. The fund of victims of Madoff, who called this initiative, received 65.000 requests of compensation from 136 countries.

“The plan of Madoff devastated pension funds and retirements, charity organizations or non-profit, and of thousands of individuals,” says prosecutor Brian A. Benczkowski in the statement where he explains that recent delivery.

The difference between one track and another is definition. The trusts of the bankruptcy come directly to the holders of accounts, which may include many investors, in both the Department of Justice focuses on people who lost their money, even if invested directly through a fund.

One of the lessons drawn by Sheehan and Picard is that people do not pay attention to your statements, don't read. Having done so, you would have noticed that the manager was trading on Saturdays, Sundays or days holiday. Many yielded to the glow Madoff and the promise of pingues benefits. This is another lesson learnt, says Sheehan: “greed cannot be regulated”.