Judge Dismisses Some Madoff Trustee Claims Against Investors

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is reviewing hundreds of lawsuits filed by the liquidator of Bernard Madoff’s firm, said he dismissed some claims against investors including James Greiff.

In his ruling, Rakoff tossed claims by Madoff trustee Irving Picard for taking back eight years of profit received from the con man’s brokerage, leaving him to claw back two years of profit. He made a similar decision this year when he cut Picard’s $1 billion lawsuit against the New York Mets owners to $386 million. Picard and the Major League Baseball team’s owners later settled.

Rakoff said in the filing, dated April 27 and made public today in federal court in Manhattan, that he would explain his ruling today. The judge, who set an April 2 deadline for Madoff investors to seek to move their cases to district court from bankruptcy court, received more than 400 new requests in the week before the deadline expired.

Amanda Remus, a spokeswoman for Picard, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on Rakoff’s decision.

The Greiff case is Picard v. Greiff, 11-cv-03775, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story; Linda Sandler in New York at lsandler@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net