For Madoff Victims, an Avenging Angel

For Madoff Victims, an Avenging Angel - BusinessWeek: "When Bernard Madoff's investment firm collapsed in history's biggest Ponzi scheme more than two years ago, Irving Picard was appointed to the daunting job of trying to collect some of the $65 billion purportedly in customer accounts. Now, with about $10 billion in hand, Picard may be on his way to recovering the $20 billion in principal he estimates was lost to Madoff. And as he pursues hundreds of lawsuits seeking $100 billion from banks and others he claims profited from the fraud, he may be able to give some victims something Madoff never even tried to deliver—a return on their investment.

His strategy is simple. 'We're looking to collect as much money as possible,' Picard said outside court Jan. 13, after a bankruptcy judge approved a $7.2 billion settlement Picard and U.S. prosecutors reached with the estate of Jeffry Picower, a Madoff investor who died in 2009. The Picower settlement—the biggest of its kind—underscores the tricky position Picard is in: To return money to Madoff's victims, he has to first take it from somebody else. Picard's choices about whom to pay and whom to sue have led some victims to feel wronged again."