March 28, 2018, New York – The Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee has, so far, recovered or reached agreements to recover approximately $12.874 billion of the estimated $17.5 billion in principal lost in the Ponzi scheme by Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) customers. This recovery represents more than 73 percent and so far exceeds any prior restitution effort related to Ponzi schemes both concerning dollars and percentage of stolen funds recovered.
Recently, on March 27, 2018, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a recovery agreement with Alpha Prime Fund Ltd., a BLMIS feeder fund incorporated under Bermuda law. Through this settlement, the SIPA Trustee will recover $76.45 million, representing 100 percent of the transfers Alpha Prime received from BLMIS in the two years preceding the commencement of BLMIS’s SIPA proceeding.
Other significant recoveries in the last few months include – Thema International, which will pay approximately $687 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund for ultimate distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims, Lagoon Investment Limited and Hermes International Fund Limited, who will pay approximately $240 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund for ultimate distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims, Thema Wise Investments Limited and Thema Fund Limited, which will pay approximately $130 million to the BLMIS Customer Fund for ultimate distribution to BLMIS customers with allowed claims