Investors Take Madoff to Bankruptcy Court
Ethics
A small group of investors took Bernard Madoff to bankruptcy court onMonday, saying the disgraced financier bilked them out of nearly $64million.
A Manhattan judge cleared the way for the newly filed Chapter 7petition last week by granting a request from the same investors tolift a temporary order barring bankruptcy for Madoff. They had arguedthat a bankruptcy case was needed to protect their rights amid anongoing scramble to seize his assets.
Madoff,70, pleaded guilty last month to federal charges his secretiveinvestment advisory service actually was a multibillion Ponzi scheme inwhich he paid longtime clients with money from new ones. He is jailed,awaiting a June sentencing for charges that carry a sentence of up to150 years in prison.
Federal authorities already have begunforcing Madoff to forfeit property they allege was paid for by hisfraud. In addition, a court-appointed trustee is liquidating assetsfrom his securities firm to help play claims from thousands of burnedinvestors.
The investors who sought bankruptcy believe it was thebest way to make sure "all the property available would go to thevictims," their lawyer, Jonathan Landers, said Monday.
Theyinclude a general partnership in Florida that claims it lost $30.2million and another Madoff client who says he lost about $29 million inpersonal and charitable trust accounts. The claims are based on amountslisted in the last statements they received from Madoff — documentsinvestigators say were fictitious.
Related listings
-
NM Claims Retirement Center Abused Patients
Ethics 03/19/2009The State of New Mexico claims Dr. Ali Ghaffari and his pharmacist wife owned and operated the substandard and abusive Buena Vista Retirement Center in Clovis, and bilked the state through Medicaid fraud. The state also sued Dr. Ali Ghaffari Sr., and...
-
Sexist Country Club Bans Phoenix Man
Ethics 02/26/2009A man says Phoenix Country Club expelled him for objecting to its policy that bars women from the grill. Russell Brown, an attorney, says that after he expressed his views to other members, to the Arizona Women Lawyer's Association and The New York T...
-
Woman Poses as Attorney to Smuggle Cigs
Ethics 02/11/2009A woman who police say posed as a lawyer to sneak into the Duval County jail no longer has any need to sneak in. Investigators say 37-year-old Louise Cortese has been arrested after smuggling tobacco products into the jail for her boyfriend, who's al...
Workers’ Compensation Subrogation of Administrative Fees and Costs
When a worker covered by workers’ compensation makes a claim against a third party, the workers’ compensation insurance retains the right to subrogate against any recovery from that third party for all benefits paid to or on behalf of a claimant injured at work. When subrogating for more than basic medical and indemnity benefits, the Texas workers’ compensation subrogation statute provides that “the net amount recovered by a claimant in a third‑party action shall be used to reimburse the carrier for benefits, including medical benefits that have been paid for the compensable injury.” TX Labor Code § 417.002.
In fact, all 50 states provide for similar subrogation. However, none of them precisely outlines which payments or costs paid by a compensation carrier constitute “compensation” and can be recovered. The result is industry-wide confusion and an ongoing debate and argument with claimants’ attorneys over what can and can’t be included in a carrier’s lien for recovery purposes.
In addition to medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or indemnity benefits for lost wages and loss of earning capacity resulting from a compensable injury, workers’ compensation insurance carriers also expend considerable dollars for case management costs, medical bill audit fees, rehabilitation benefits, nurse case worker fees, and other similar fees. They also incur other expenses in conjunction with the handling and adjusting of workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation carriers typically assert, of course, that, they are entitled to reimbursement for such expenditures when it recovers its workers’ compensation lien. Injured workers and their attorneys disagree.