Sec. Investor Prot. Corp. v. Bernard L. Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC

598 B.R. 102
District Court, S.D. Illinois·Decided March 19, 2019·No. Adv. Pro. No. 08-1789 (SMB) (Substantively Consolidated); Adv. Pro. No. 15-1293 (SMB); Appeal No. 17-CV-2230 (VSB)·Published·Cited by 28 cases

Opinion

VERNON S. BRODERICK, United States District Judge:

This bankruptcy appeal arises out of the third attempt by a group of former customers of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC ("BLMIS") to circumvent a permanent injunction entered by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, in connection with its approval of a $7.2 billion settlement between the Trustee of BLMIS and a number of parties affiliated with Jeffry M. Picower (the "Picower Parties" and, together with the Trustee, "Appellees").

Appellants-former BLMIS customers and now creditors of the BLMIS estate-seek review in this Court after the Bankruptcy Court denied their application for a declaration that their proposed Third Amended Complaint (the "Fox III Complaint") against the Picower Parties asserted claims that were not barred by the *106permanent injunction. Because I agree with the Bankruptcy Court's determination that the Fox III Complaint asserts claims that are duplicative and derivative of claims previously brought by the Trustee, I conclude that the Fox III Complaint violates the permanent injunction and I AFFIRM the decision of the Bankruptcy Court.

I. Factual Background and Procedural History 1

A. Madoff's Ponzi Scheme and BLMIS's Bankruptcy

This appeal arises from the Ponzi scheme devised by Bernard L. Madoff ("Madoff"), the ensuing bankruptcy of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, and the resulting bankruptcy proceedings. A detailed discussion of Madoff's Ponzi scheme and the events giving rise to the bankruptcy can be found in several prior decisions issued by the Bankruptcy Court, but in brief, the scheme operated as follows:

Madoff claimed he was investing BLMIS's customers' funds in stocks and then hedging with option trades. In reality, Madoff never invested any of the funds. Instead, BLMIS generated fictitious account statements reflecting trades that were never actually completed and profits that were never actually generated. Because BLMIS was not actually generating profit, it paid customers who withdrew funds with the proceeds of other customers' investments. Eventually, BLMIS was unable to meet its customers' demands for withdrawals, and the scheme collapsed.

A & G Goldman P'ship v. Picard ("Goldman III App. Ct. "), 739 F. App'x 679, 681 (2d Cir. 2018) (summary order) (internal citations omitted); see also In re Bernard L. Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC, 424 B.R. 122, 135 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2010), aff'd, 654 F.3d 229 (2d Cir. 2011).

After Madoff's scheme came to light in December 2008, BLMIS entered into liquidation proceedings pursuant to the Securities Investor Protection Act ("SIPA"). See Marshall v. Capital Growth Co. ("Bankr. Op."), 568 B.R. 203, 205 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2017). Irving H. Picard (the "Trustee"), as Trustee for the liquidation of BLMIS, determined that each BLMIS customer's claims against the bankruptcy estate would be calculated based on the "Net Investment Method," crediting the amount of cash the customer deposited into his BLMIS account, less any amounts withdrawn from it. See In re Bernard L. Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC , 654 F.3d 229, 233 (2d Cir. 2011). Under the Net Investment Method, a customer's recovery was limited to the amount of his investment-that is, he could not recover the false profits that BLMIS had reported on his customer statements. Some customers, including Appellants in the current action, argued that the Trustee should also return their fictitious profits to them; however, the Bankruptcy Court upheld the Trustee's use of the Net Investment Method. See In re Bernard L. Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC , 424 B.R. at 135. The Second Circuit, in turn, affirmed the Bankruptcy Court's decision, concluding that permitting customers to collect their false profits would "have the absurd effect of treating fictitious and arbitrarily assigned paper profits as real and would give legal effect to Madoff's machinations." In re Bernard L. Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC , 654 F.3d at 235.2

*107B. Trustee's Suit Against Picower and the Permanent Injunction

In May 2009, the Trustee initiated an adversary proceeding against Jeffry Picower (now deceased) and the Picower Parties to recover $7.2 billion that BLMIS had fraudulently transferred to the Picower Parties between 1995 and 2008, as part of the Ponzi scheme. Bankr. Op., 568 B.R. at 205. The Trustee's complaint alleged that the Picower Parties were aware of the Ponzi scheme, were "complicit[ ] in [Madoff's] fraud," and actively participated in the scheme by directing BLMIS employees to create fictitious trading records in their accounts. (App'x 869; Bankr. Op., 568 B.R. at 205.) To support the contention that Picower had knowledge of Madoff's fraud, the complaint cited Picower and Madoff's close relationship, Picower's understanding of BLMIS's operations, and the "implausibly high rates of return" that Picower received on his purported investments. Goldman III App. Ct. , 739 F. App'x at 681. The Trustee and the Picower Parties (along with the Government) ultimately entered into a global settlement agreement, pursuant to which the Picower Parties agreed to forfeit $7.235 billion, to be distributed to BLMIS victims. (App'x 1125.) On January 13, 2011, the Bankruptcy Court approved the settlement and issued a permanent injunction, which defines the parties against whom it applies. The injunction provides:

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Sec. Investor Prot. Corp. v. Bernard L. Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC, 598 B.R. 102 (S.D. Ill. 2019).

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