Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- An entity tied to the New York Mets baseball team and its owner Sterling Equities Inc. might be sued for withdrawing $47.8 million more from Bernard Madoff’s firm than it deposited with the con man, a lawyer said.

Mets LP placed a total of $522.7 million in two Madoff accounts and withdrew $570.5 million over an unspecified period, Irving Picard, the court-appointed liquidator, said in a filing Oct. 19 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Picard has sued Madoff’s biggest investors and longtime beneficiaries, including hedge-fund firms, philanthropists and family members, seeking the return of about $15 billion in what he calls fake profit from the fraud. Sterling Equities, led by Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon, hasn’t been sued.

“It cannot be argued on Wilpon’s behalf that these were legitimate investment returns,” Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, who isn’t involved in the case, said yesterday in an interview. “It would be a violation of his fiduciary duty for Picard to not seek the return of that money.”

When Madoff’s $65 billion fraud collapsed, Mets LP had $829,230 in the accounts, according to the filing. The entity filed claims for that amount with the bankruptcy court, both of which Picard denied.

Recovery Denied

The denial blocks Mets LP from sharing in money recovered by Picard on behalf of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC’s estate. Mets LP filed an objection without giving the size of the claims or how much money it invested.

Neither Wilpon nor Greg Nero, a spokesman for Sterling Equities, returned calls for comment. Picard’s filing didn’t specify Mets LP’s role, if any, in finances for Sterling Equities or the Mets baseball team.

Madoff, 71, who is serving a 150-year sentence, had two Delta Club Platinum season tickets for the Mets, for seats directly behind home plate. Picard in April started selling the tickets to raise money for victims. Two tickets for the team’s first home game of the season sold for $7,500 on EBay Inc.’s auction site, court records show.

Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon, the owner’s son, said days after Madoff’s Dec. 11 arrest that Sterling Equities’ accounts with Madoff’s defunct business wouldn’t affect the team’s operations.

The Oct. 19 filing included 78 individuals and entities that filed objections over Picard’s denial or reduction of claims totaling about $260 million.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland ordered Picard to file the list before a hearing scheduled for Feb. 2 to determine if the liquidator is correctly calculating claims in the case.

Fake Profits

Picard and the quasi-government agency that hired him, the Securities Investor Protection Corp., say victims aren’t entitled to the return of fake profit from the scheme. They say claims must be based on cash deposits minus withdrawals, rather than on final account statements that show bogus trades and false annual returns.

The list filed Oct. 19 includes a group of 31 investors, including Mets LP, whose claims totaling $136 million were denied because they withdrew more money than they deposited. The list also includes victims who, for the same reason, were given allowed claims that are smaller than what they sought.

The case is Securities Investor Protection Corp. v. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, 08-01789, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 21, 2009 00:01 EDT