Yes! It’s $4B to Bernie victims

The US government said it has begun distributing $772.5 million from a $4.05 billion fund to compensate victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, ending a nearly nine-year wait for thousands of people.

A total of 24,631 checks from the Madoff Victim Fund are being mailed to individuals, government entities, schools, charities and retirement plans in 49 US states, Washington, DC, and 119 other countries.

More than two-thirds of the recipients, or 16,557, had received no prior compensation for their losses. They will receive about $545 million from the payout, which is structured to cover 25 percent of recipients’ losses.

Rod Rosenstein, the deputy US attorney general, called the payout, from the Department of Justice’ s victim compensation program ,“the largest restoration of forfeited property in history.”

Richard Breeden, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, oversees the $4.05 billion fund, set upin November2013.

Madoff, 79, is serving a 150-year prison term for running what prosecutors called a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, which was uncovered in December 2008.

Payouts from the Madoff Victim Fund are eventually expected to goto 37,214 claimants from 124 countries, and whose losses exceeded $7.5 billion. Nearly all had invested indirectly with Madoff, such as through “feeder funds.”

In aseparate recovery effort, Irving Picard, a trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, has recouped $12.74 billion for the swindler’s victims.

Picard, however, is making payouts to people who invested directly with Madoff, not indirectly, and has approved just 2,625 claims. He has said customers with approved claims lost about $17.5 billion.

The Justice Department and Breeden had drawn criticism over the lack of payouts from the fund, in part fueled by reports over bills by Breeden’s firm for its services.

Most money in the fund came from settlements with the estate of Jeffry Picower, a Madoff investor from Florida, and JP Morgan Chase, once Madoff’s mainbank.

“I’m pleased the government is finally beginning to compensate the victims,” Rep. Vern Buchanan (RFla.), who had complained about delays, said in an e-mailed statement. “These people were cheated out of their life savings and have been waiting years to get some of their money back. It’s long overdue.”