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Over $1 Billion in Fees in Madoff Recovery

December 23, 2014 | Posted in : Bankruptcy Fees / Expenses, Expenses / Costs, Fee Award, Fee Request

The liquidation of the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC (BLMIS) has not come to an end, but the legal and professional fees of trustee Irving H. Picard of Baker & Hostetler in New York have top the $1 billion mark.  Bloomberg reports in a November 2014 court filing Picard stated that the trustee’s total fees for liquidating the Madoff firm distributing the over $10 billion in assets recovered to date have now hit the ten-digit mark.

Picard’s fees are not paid out of the recovery fund, but are paid separately by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).  The fees include a 10 percent public interest discount the SIPA Trustee, his counsel and special consultants have adopted since the beginning of the BLMIS liquidation in late 2008.  All of the fees to date have been approved by the Bankruptcy Court as customary and in line with competitive fees and expenses.

“At NALFA, we’re checking, but this may be the largest attorney fees and expenses for a single case in U.S. history,” said Terry Jesse, Executive Director of NALFA.  NALFA also reported on this case in “NALFA Attorney Fee Scoreboard: The Madoff Case” and “$34.6M More in Interim Attorney Fees in Madoff Case”

For more on the Madoff case visit http://www.madofftrustee.com/