New York Mets owe up to $83M to Madoff trustee, judge says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Feb. 17, 2012: New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon watches his team during a spring training baseball workout in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Wilpon says he plans on owning the team for a long time despite financial troubles caused by the collapse of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. (AP)
A judge has ruled that owners of the New York Mets owe up to $83 million to the trustee recovering money for Bernard Madoff investors.
Federal Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan ruled Monday that there will still be a trial on whether additional money is owed. But he expressed doubt that the Mets would owe more.
Rakoff had already limited what the team's owners might have to pay to other Madoff investors to $386 million. The trustee had sought $1 billion.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The trustee previously sued the Mets' owners, saying they had to know Madoff was acting illegally. The owners' lawyers say that wasn't true.
Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence for his multibillion-dollar fraud.
The judge said he'll decide in a future order exactly how much money is owed.