Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Madoff Trustee Has Billed More Than $1 Billion In Legal Fees

The law firm responsible for recovering the money lost in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme has been paid just over $1 billion in legal fees for their work on the case, according to The American Lawyer.

The billion-dollar payout for the Ohio-based BakerHoestetler came over the course of nearly a decade, as the firm has recovered more than $13 billion for Madoff’s investors.

A court order in late August approving $33 million in fees brought BakerHoestetler’s total to $1.026 billion, according to The American Lawyer.

Madoff’s Ponzi scheme unraveled in 2008, resulting in losses of billions of dollars for investors, including a number of major Jewish institutions. A federal bankruptcy judge appointed BakerHoestetler’s Irving Picard to serve as trustee in 2008. He and his team have recovered $13 billion, $11 billion of which has been paid out to Madoff’s former customers.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version