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Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff
Investment Securities LLC, on Friday announced the settlement
with the estate of former Cohmad Chairman Maurice "Sonny" Cohn,
his widow Marilyn Cohn, and their daughter Marcia Cohn, who was
Cohmad's chief operating officer.
Though Cohmad is insolvent, Picard said he plans to keep
pursuing claims against six other individuals who received
"substantial fees" for helping Cohmad raise money for Madoff.
"Cohmad is one of the earliest and best-known names affiliated
with Madoff, and this highly successful settlement brings one
important chapter of (its) story to a close," Kathryn Zunno, a
partner at Picard's law firm Baker & Hostetler, said in a
statement.
The accord requires court approval, and would end a
seven-year-old lawsuit against the Cohns.
It was announced one week after Picard reached a $277 million
settlement with the estate of Beverly Hills investment adviser
Stanley Chais, who also sent client cash to Madoff. California
will receive $15 million from that accord.
Cohmad, Sonny and Marcia Cohn, and former Cohmad vice president
Robert Jaffe in 2010 settled a related U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission probe into their dealings with Madoff.
They have denied knowing that Madoff had been running a
decades-long fraud.
"Cohmad" is a contraction of "Cohn" and "Madoff."
Friday's settlement would boost Picard's total recovery for
Madoff customers to $11.49 billion. Nearly $9.5 billion has been
distributed. The trustee has estimated that the customers lost
$17.5 billion.
Madoff, 78, is serving a 150-year prison term after pleading
guilty to a fraud uncovered in December 2008.
The cases are Picard v Cohmad Securities Corp et al, U.S.
Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No.
09-ap-01305; and In re: Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities
LLC in the same court, No. 08-01789.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
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