Trustee Wants Mets Owners to Surrender $300 Million in Madoff Scheme Lawsuit

Filed under: Mets

NEW YORK (AP) -- A trustee trying to recover money for victims of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is demanding $300 million from the partnership that owns the Mets, which he says were fake profits from the massive fraud, according to a lawsuit unsealed Friday.

The suit in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan names Sterling Equities, along with its partners and family members, including Mets owner Fred Wilpon, team president Saul Katz and chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon, the owner's son.

It alleges the partnership "received approximately $300 million in fictitious profits'' from hundreds of accounts opened with Madoff's firm. Of that, $90 million of "other people's money'' were withdrawn to cover day-to-day operations of the Mets.

"Given Sterling's dependency on Madoff, it comes as no surprise that the Sterling partners willfully turned a blind eye to every objective indicia of fraud before them,'' the suit by trustee Irving Picard alleges.

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/04/trustee-wants-mets-owners-to-surrender-300-million-in-madoff-sc/

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