Mets Owners Settle With Madoff Trustee For $162 Million

The owners of the New York Mets reached a settlement deal for $162 million with a trustee for the victims of Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme. The settlement will be used to pay back some of the victims from the massive investment scheme. In return, trustee Irving H. Picard agreed to drop all claims that the Mets owners knew about the fraudulent activity.

CNN reports that the settlement was announced this morning shortly before jury selection was scheduled to begin.

Trustee Irving Picard originally sued Mets owners Saul Katz, Fred Wilpon and the holding company Sterling Equities, for $1 billion. David Sheehan, a spokesman for Picard’s firm, said:

“We believe that this is a fair and just settlement.”

The NY Times reports that Picard originally sued the Mets for $1 billion. A judge dropped a large portion of the lawsuit last year and today the two parties agreed to a $162 million settlement for the”fictitious profits” that Ktaz and Wilpon withdrew from their Madoff related accounts. The settlement includes the $83 million that the Mets owners had already been ordered to pay and won’t be due for three years.

The owners of the Mets weren’t the only ones who profited from Madoff’s ponzi scheme. Picard has sued hundreds of investors in an attempt to repay the fraud victims. Sheehan said that since the Mets case is now over the firm will be able to focus on recouping money from those who befitted from the ponzi scheme.