Madoff Victims Poised to Start 2017 With $342 Million in Payouts

  • Settlement financed in part by collection from Chais estate
  • Trustee set to disburse as recoveries top $11.5 billion

Bernard Madoff arrives at federal court in New York, on March 12, 2009.

Photographer: Stephen Chernin/Getty Images
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Bernard Madoff’s victims are set to receive a $342 million payout from the trustee unwinding his epic Ponzi scheme, financed in part by a settlement with the estate of one of the con man’s oldest friends, the late Beverly Hills billionaire Stanley Chais.

The distribution, if approved by a judge, would be the eighth since Madoff’s arrest on Dec. 11, 2008. Trustee Irving Picard’s lawsuits and settlements with banks and wealthy investors have recovered about $11.5 billion for thousands of victims who lost $17.5 billion in principal.