As if this situation wasn't ridiculous enough, it gets even worse for the Mets owners being sued by Trustee, Irving Picard.
According to Adam Rubin, Picard's lawsuit, which led many to believe he was seeking $300 million, is actually seeking the $1 billion reported prior to the lawsuit being unsealed Friday.
In a statement, one of Picard's attorney's said:
“What the trustee is looking for here is a payment in cash...So whether they utilize the Mets, SNY, Sterling properties or any other resource is of no moment to us. What we’re looking for is a billion dollars, and unless we settle for less than that, which we’re not inclined to do, where they get the money is of no moment to us.”
As Rubin points out, the astronomical amount of money sought by Picard could just be a scare tactic to force the Wilpons to settle for less, perhaps for around $300 million, which is what Picard claims Sterling Partners, families, trustees, and entities withdrew from the Madoff accounts.
Picard is seeking the extra millions because he claims the Wilpons either knew, or should have known about the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, and continued to invest with the man while ignoring a number of warnings.
If the Wilpons decide to gamble and take this to trial, they could end up losing more than just $1 billion. It could mean the loss of the team as well.
Based on previous statements which came from the Mets, it does not sound like they are willing to settle. They genuinely seem as though they are being targeted, and they plan on fighting.
I've stated in the past that the Wilpons need to go. It's not a secret, I'm not a fan of them. If what they say is true, however, and they were not aware of the scheme, this lawsuit by Picard needs to end.
That being said, after reading the complaint again, it seems as though the Wilpons may have received and ignored warnings.
According to the complaint, following Madoff's arrest on December 11, 2008, a number of e-mails were sent which indicated the Chief Investment Officer for Sterling Stamos, Ashok Chachra, had been suspicious of Madoff for years. A Sterling Stamos sent the following in an e-mail:
"[A] lot of our investors gave us crap about not generating returns like Madoff's [...] and I guess our CIO always said it was a scam, 'too good to be true[.]'"
On December 13, 2008, the Sterling Stamos CIO sent an e-mail which also appears to confirm that the Wilpons knew something was up.
"In fact, we turned down the Madoff Funds more than [sic] 6 years ago and told many of our investors including the Wilpon and Katz families about our concerns. Notwithstanding our concerns, the Wilpon and Katz families continued to invest with Madoff Securities."
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