California’s Madoff Investor Suit Is Illegal, Picard Says
This article is for subscribers only.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris is breaking the law by suing to recoup illegal profits from Bernard Madoff’s fraud in competition with the Madoff trustee, according to a court filing.
The trustee, Irving Picard, is trying to block Harris’s $270 million state enforcement action against investment adviser Stanley Chais’s estate, saying that under U.S. bankruptcy law the trustee alone can take money stolen from Madoff customers. Harris has said her suit is an exception to the rule, because she is exercising her policing power under state law.