FIRST OF MADOFF REPAYMENTS GOES OUT

The first of the repayment checks from the Madoff court-appointed trustee to victims of his Ponzi scam, have now been mailed. They total about $30 million. That represents about half of the $61.4 million already approved for payment by the federally chartered Securities Investors Protection Corporation, the agency overseeing the liquidation of brokerage firms.

Trustee Irving Picard said 125 claims had been approved, and that the $100 million in claims should be approved by the end of this month. Most checks are for a flat sum of $500,000, which is the maximum protection allowed by the SIPC.

Additional customer losses will come from whatever assets the trustee can reclaim through the liquidation process.

Picard added that has already sued to recover $10.1 billion from six investors who withdrew very large sums from their accounts in the year before the Madoff scam came to light.

Additionally, Picard said, he is trying to negotiate with approximately 100 Madoff family members, former employees and other insiders to recover another $735 million which had been paid them.

So far Picard has managed to find around $1billion but expects that amount to “move up significantly.”

Meantime, Bernie Madoff is sitting in jail, awaiting sentencing. That hearing has now been moved from June 16 to June 29.