The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear arguments by an investor in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme for overturning a Second Circuit decision on how to calculate the amount of investor withdrawals that can be clawed back to the Madoff bankruptcy estate.
The high court denied certiorari to Malcolm Sage’s petition, which argued the liquidation trustee of Madoff’s company had used a profit calculation method barred by law and that the Second Circuit misquoted one of its own prior rulings when it found for the trustee.
Madoff’s scheme collapsed in 2008 and Irving Picard was appointed to oversee the liquidation of Madoff’s company. He has since filed scores of lawsuits seeking to recover profits some investors made from the scheme in order to compensate investors who lost money, and reported he had clawed back nearly $14.7 billion as of the end of March.
Picard sought $16.9 million he alleged Sage and his companies, Sage Associates and Sage Realty, had taken in profits, calculated with the “net investment method,” which involves subtracting withdrawals from the amounts invested.
