Family Invested With Madoff Must Return $16.9 Million to Trustee

A family that invested with Bernie Madoff must return $16.9 million after an appeals court said there was no reason to treat them differently from other investors who lost money in the Ponzi scheme.

Appellant Malcolm Sage argued that the district court used the wrong methodology for calculating their net equity. The court should have used the “last statement method,” not the “net investment method,” according to Sage.

But using the last statement method would “permit the Sages to benefit at the literal expense of other defrauded BLMIS customers,” the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Thursday. ...