Madoff Judge Asks Gibraltar to Turn Over $73.1 Million

The judge overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s investment firm recently asked the Supreme Court of Gibraltar to transfer $73.1 million for use as compensation for Madoff’s ponzi scheme victims.

In the August 23 letter to Chief Justice Anthony Dudley of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland wrote that the money was to satisfy, in part, a $180 million default judgment entered against, among others, Vizcaya Partners Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-based hedge fund.

The default judgment stems from the April 2009 lawsuit brought by Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC, accusing Vizcaya of improperly profiting from Madoff’s scheme. The judgment also applies to Asphalia Fund Ltd, Siam Capital Management, and Zeus Partners Ltd.

“At this stage,” Lifland wrote, “it would be in the best interest of the BLMIS estate to turn the Gibraltar funds over to either this court or the trustee.” The Gibraltar court gained custody of the $73.1 million last year through another litigation.

As of March 31, Picard had recovered over $1.5 billion for Madoff victims and is currently going after billions more from companies that fed money to Madoff, and former Madoff clients who potentially withdrew more money from Madoff’s company than they deserved.

Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison.