Madoff trustee fights ruling blocking $4B in payouts
The trustee finding money for victims of Bernard Madoff’s epic fraud is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a court ruling that he says may prevent the recovery of nearly $4 billion.
Trustee Irving Picard asked the high court to look at the December ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. He says the appeals decision blocked the trustee from recovering and distributing nearly $2 billion and calls into question an additional $2 billion in potential recoveries and distributions.
A petition by Picard calls the repercussions of the 2nd Circuit decision profound. The 2nd Circuit ruled after some Madoff customers, who received more in payouts from Madoff than their original investment, claimed they were protected under bankruptcy laws.
APPLE PLANNING LOW-COST STREAMING SERVICE
Apple has held talks with a number of leading television groups to offer an Internet-based TV service for its iPhone, iPad and Apple TV set-top box, according to people briefed on the company’s plans.
The service, which could be announced later this year, would offer a bundle of channels that is smaller and cheaper than the bloated catalog of offerings in a typical cable subscription, said these people, who discussed the incomplete plans on the condition of anonymity.
The plan would potentially offer networks owned by the television groups and Discovery, the people said Tuesday. That could include the broadcast networks ABC, CBS and Fox, along with a lineup of other cable networks, such as and Discovery Channel.
Disney, Fox, CBS
ESPN
NINTENDO FORMS PARTNERSHIP FOR MOBILE GAMES
For years, Nintendo had insisted that it would not take its beloved cast of video game characters, including and to the smartphones and tablets that tens of millions of people now use to play games.
But Nintendo now has reversed its position on mobile devices, dropping a pledge that had come to seem increasingly detached from the habits of game players.
The company said it had formed a partnership with another Japanese company that specializes in mobile games, DeNA, to develop games based on Nintendo brands for smartphones and tablets. The two companies said they planned to create an online gaming service to be introduced this fall that will be accessible from mobile devices, PCs and Nintendo’s own game systems.
FACEBOOK TO INTRODUCE PAYMENTS IN MESSAGES
Facebook’s instant messaging service isn’t just for sending smiley faces and photos anymore. Now you can use it to send money instantly to your friends.
The social networking giant announced that U.S. users of its Messenger app would be able to link their debit cards to the service and use it to message money to one another just as easily as they send a snapshot or text.
Given Facebook’s huge size and reach, the introduction of its payments feature — which has been highly anticipated by Wall Street — is likely to cause tremors in the nascent market for instantly sending money to individuals, known as peer-to-peer payments.