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New York Mets in Madoff settlement
OWNERS of the New York Mets baseball team have agreed to pay $162m (£101.9m) to settle a lawsuit by the trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard Madoff’s fraud, just before a trial was scheduled to begin.
The settlement was announced in Manhattan federal court by US district judge Jed Rakoff yesterday. Payments by the team are expected to occur over several years.
Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee, had accused Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz of ignoring warning signs that Madoff was running a fraud during their 25 years of investing with him.
The owners countered that they did not know Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme. The money does not have to be paid back for three years.