justice

Models Win $21 Million in Lawsuit, Must Donate $2 Million to Charity

Filed under: Charity

The New York Daily News reported last week that five women's charities -- including an eating disorder program -- will share $2 million from a class-action settlement with major modeling agencies, as ordered by a federal judge. The money is what is left over after thousands of aspiring and established models got their share of a $21 million settlement with the agencies, including Wilhelmina, Ford and Click. The models sued in 2002, claiming the agencies fixed prices. A settlement was reached in 2005, but legal disputes delayed the final payouts. Manhattan Federal Judge Harold Baer originally ruled that after the models and their lawyers were paid, the remaining $6 million would be divvied up among the charities. The models and their lawyers appealed his decision, and after recalculating the payouts, a $2 million pool was left. Baer signed a final order that included $347,826 for Columbia University's eating disorders program and $173,913 for its heroin detox program. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute will receive $86,956 for its "Heart Truth" campaign and New York University School of Medicine will receive $347,826 for two heart research studies aimed at women.

Tags: charities, charity, justice, lawsuit, legal, model, models

Madoff's Victims To Get $534+ Million in Payments

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth, Crimes and Misdemeanors

The latest in the Bernie Madoff saga is actually a bit of good news for his myriad victims. Reuters reports that they will receive more than $534 million in payouts, according to court-appointed trustee Irving Picard, who is trying to recover Madoff's assets.

The sum is less than one-eighth of the $4.44 billion of claims that Picard has so far deemed valid and is less than 3% of the $21.2 billion of losses suffered by holders of 2,335 Madoff accounts. These losses are up from the $13 billion the government estimated in June, when Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Picard, a partner at the law firm Baker & Hostetler LLP, said he has reviewed 2,861 direct customer claims, allowing 1,558 and rejecting 1,303. He said 15,974 customer claims were submitted and noted that he has recovered $1.4 billion of Madoff assets, an amount that should reach $1.5 billion by year end.

Picard has filed lawsuits to recover $15 billion from Madoff investors he calls "net winners." Of the 4,903 accounts at Madoff's firm on December 11, 2008, when Madoff was arrested, 2,568 received more money than they deposited, he said.

Picard also said he will pursue the recovery of $7.2 billion from the estate of billionaire philanthropist Jeffry Picower, who recently drowned in a swimming pool at his Palm Beach, Fla., home following a heart attack.

The Securities Investor Protection Corp, a federally chartered agency that supervises the liquidation of brokerages, has been "the only source of distributed funds" to victims so far, agency president Stephen Harbeck said, adding that the $534.25 million of committed advances is more than in the SIPC's 321 combined prior liquidations since 1970. Federal law limits SIPC protection to $500,000.

Source

Tags: bernard Madoff, BernardMadoff, Bernie Madoff, BernieMadoff, justice, Madoff, ponzi scheme, PonziScheme