Meltzer Lippe Organizes Multi-Disciplinary Team of Attorneys to Assist Community with Madoff Claims
Meltzer Lippe is deeply troubled by the incalculable financial and psychological damage suffered by our clients, friends and general community resulting from the $50 billion Madoff scandal. They offer this message to those involved with Madoff:
As we have detailed below, your opportunity for financial recovery and other relief depends on the specific facts related to your individual investment. While multiple knee jerk class actions have already been filed, this may not be an effective remedy for many of you since:
(i) class actions where there are limited assets and billions in claims typically result in a very small recovery for any individual member of the class as contrasted with the financial benefit to class action lawyers who receive a large percentage of the total recovery,
(ii) much of any monetary recovery and other relief will have to come from sources other than Bernard Madoff,
(iii) class action status may be denied since class actions are intended to benefit hundreds or thousands of small claims brought by plaintiffs where it is not practical to sue individually because of the amount involved (i.e. overcharges by a utility) rather than where many of the individual claims are for millions of dollars, and
(iv) bankruptcy proceedings are likely and will result in a court supervised distribution of the Madoff assets.
Any effective remedy for you is likely to be multi-pronged and dependent on a number of facts and circumstances personally related to you, as follows:
a) Whether your investment was made on the recommendation or at the discretion of an investment advisor, accountant, trustee or similar professional and what insurance and assets the advisor holds.
b) Whether and, to what extent, you have paid taxes on fictitious taxable income. Our top notch tax department has already strategized various forms of tax relief and refunds.
c) Whether you are an individual investor, a pension plan, trust, a charitable organization or other type of entity and whether specific fiduciary duties are owed to you.
d) Whether prior to the admission by Madoff you sought to or did liquidate all or a portion of your investment. This may affect your right to be part of a group that files an involuntary bankruptcy against Madoff.
e) Whether you invested directly in the fund or through a conduit. Our firm has had detailed discussions about this community disaster. We feel a personal and professional obligation to assist each of our clients in a thoughtful manner after understanding the specific facts affecting each client. We do not believe that a “one size fits all” approach is suitable. Should you wish to discuss your personal situation, please contact Karen Goldberg, Madoff Claims Coordinator, at (516) 747-0300 x134 or via email at kgoldberg@meltzerlippe.com. She will arrange for you to meet with a member of our Project Team.
