Irving Picard

Last updated
Irving H. Picard
Born (1941-06-26) June 26, 1941 (age 83)
Fall River, Massachusetts
Alma mater University of Pennsylvania (BS) Boston University School of Law (JD)
New York University School of Law (LLM)
OccupationAttorney
Employer BakerHostetler
Known for Recovery of funds from the Madoff investment scandal

Irving H. Picard (born June 26, 1941) [1] is a partner in the law firm BakerHostetler. He is known for his recovery of funds from the Madoff investment scandal from investors, Bernie Madoff and his family, and their spouses and estates. Throughout the case, Picard's law firm was paid approximately $1 billion. [2]

Contents

Early life

Picard was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, and is Jewish. [3] [4] His parents were Julius Picard (a doctor born in Lauterbourg, France) and Claire Dreyfuss (born in Kaiserslautern, Germany). [5]

In August 1938, Julius and Claire Picard immigrated with their children from Mainz in Nazi Germany to the United States. [5] [4] They settled in Fall River, where their third son, Irving, was born. Irving's uncle Moritz Cahn, a lawyer in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, committed suicide, with his wife, in 1941 to avoid the concentration camps. [5]

Picard graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. degree in Economics (1963) from Boston University School of Law with a J.D. degree (1966), and from the New York University School of Law with an LL.M. degree (1967). [6] [7]

In the 1970s, he was variously Assistant General Counsel, Acting Chief Counsel, and Trial Attorney in the Division of Corporate Regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission. [7] He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1982, and has been in private practice since then. [6] [8] He joined the law firm of BakerHostetler as a partner in 2008. [3]

Recovery of funds from Madoff scandal

In 2008, U.S. District Judge of the Southern District of New York Lawrence McKenna appointed Picard trustee of assets seized by the court from Bernard Madoff. Since then, Picard has led the recovery of funds from the Madoff investment scandal. [9] He and his team have been overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff's firm in bankruptcy court, and have so far[ when? ] recovered over $13 billion — about 76 percent of approved claims — by suing those who profited from the scheme even if those individuals were unaware or uncharged. [10] [11]

Kathy Bazoian Phelps, a lawyer at Diamond McCarthy, said "That kind of recovery is extraordinary and atypical", as clawbacks in such schemes range from 5 percent to 30 percent, and many victims do not get anything. Picard has successfully pursued not only investors, but also spouses and estates of those who profited, such as the widow and estate of the deceased Stanley Chais, and the widow and estate of the deceased Jeffry Picower, with whom he reached a $7.2 billion settlement (the largest civil forfeiture payment in US history). His most notable case was Ruth Madoff, the wife of Bernard Madoff. [10] [12] [13] "You don't take this job if you're thin-skinned", Picard once said. [3]

Related Research Articles

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Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP is a full service law firm with offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., and London. The number of attorneys practicing at the firm globally is approximately 320 as of 2020, down from approximately 375 attorneys in 2013.

BakerHostetler is an American law firm founded in 1916. One of the firm's founders, Newton D. Baker, was U.S. Secretary of War during World War I, and former Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernie Madoff</span> American fraudster and financier (1938–2021)

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Andrew Madoff was an American financier, best known for exposing alongside his brother the financial crimes of his father, Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme has been widely described as the most successful in history.

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Ruth Madoff is an American former bookkeeper and the widow of Bernie Madoff, the convicted American financial fraudster who served a prison sentence for a criminal financial scheme until his death in April 2021. After her husband's arrest for his fraud, she and her husband attempted suicide in 2008. While she had $70 million in assets in her name, after her husband was imprisoned she was stripped of all of her money other than $1–2 million by the government, and by the trustee for her husband's firm, Irving Picard.

Sonja Kohn is an Austrian banker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madoff investment scandal</span> Investment scandal discovered in 2008

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The recovery of funds from the Madoff investment scandal has been underway since the scandal broke in December 2008. That month, recovery trustee Irving Picard received funds from the Bank of New York account where Bernard Madoff held new investments into his Ponzi scheme. As it has been concluded that no legitimate investments were made on the investors' behalf for at least the last 12 years of operation, recovery has proceeded on a "money in/money out" basis. Investors are entitled to receive no more than the nominal cash amounts that they paid in and did not subsequently withdraw, without regard to inflation, interest, opportunity cost or the false statements that Madoff provided them. Those statements combined to a total balance of approximately $64 billion, while the admitted claims amount to $19.5 billion. As of March 2024, the trustee had recovered $14.7 billion toward these claims through legal action against Madoff associates, feeder funds and beneficiaries of the scheme, and had made fifteen distributions to investors. Action by the Department of Justice has recovered an additional $4 billion.

Jeffry M. Picower was an American investor involved in the Madoff investment scandal. He was the largest beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and his widow agreed to have his estate settle the claims against it by Madoff trustee Irving Picard for $7.2 billion, the largest single forfeiture in American judicial history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Chais</span> American financial advisor (1926–2010)

Stanley Chais was an American investment advisor, money manager, and philanthropist. He operated "feeder funds" which collected money for funds related to the Madoff investment scandal. The widow, family, and estate of Chais settled with Madoff trustee Irving Picard in 2016 for $277 million.

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Defender Limited is an investment fund. It was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2007. Defender funneled clients' funds to Bernard Madoff's firm as part of a Ponzi scheme run by Madoff. Madoff was arrested in December 2008, and pleaded guilty to fraud in 2009. He is serving a 150-year prison term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sterling Equities</span>

Sterling Equities is a diversified, family-run group of companies based in Great Neck, New York whose portfolio consists primarily of holdings in real estate, sports, and media in the New York area. These include the New York Mets, the Brooklyn Cyclones, SportsNet New York, the New York Excelsior, Sterling Project Development, and a number of real estate investment portfolios and real estate services businesses. The firm became embroiled in the Bernie Madoff Scandal exposing a relationship between Sterling Equities partners and Bernie Madoff spanning 20 years. The partners eventually settled a billion dollar suit with the Madoff Trustee, Irving Picard, for $161 million.

References

  1. ↑ "BirthDatabase"
  2. ↑ Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street. 2023. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  3. 1 2 3 "Meet Irving Picard, the lawyer with the toughest task in the world," Financial News.
  4. 1 2 "Meet Madoff?s match", Detroit Legal News. Accessed September 28, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "Guide to the Julius Picard Family Collection, 1732-1991 AR 3586 / MF 1114". Accessed September 28, 2022.
  6. 1 2 "New York State Unified Court System Attorney Directory" . Retrieved May 31, 2009.
  7. 1 2 United States Congress. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on the Constitution. "Balancing the Budget: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-seventh Congress, First Session, on S.J. Res. 58, Phoenix, Ariz., May 29, 1981."
  8. ↑ "Madoff money in the hands of Durfee grad", The Herald News.
  9. ↑ Rich, Frank (February 12, 2011). "At Last, Bernie Madoff Gives Back [OpEd]". New York Times.
  10. 1 2 "Madoff's Victims Are Close to Getting Their $19 Billion Back", Bloomberg.com. Accessed September 28, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Madoff customer payout tops $12 billion", Reuters.com. Accessed September 28, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Record-Setting Madoff Settlement Announced with Picower Estate", The Am Law Daily. Accessed September 28, 2022.
  13. ↑ "$7.2 Billion Picower Settlement: Payday for Madoff Victims" The Daily Beast. Accessed September 28, 2022.

Bibliography

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