Mets owners seek Madoff case venue change
Mets owner Fred Wilpon. Credit: Jim McIsaac, 2010
The trustee in the Bernard Madoff case who is suing the Wilpon family, owners of the New York Mets, accused them Friday of wasting his time and judicial resources by trying to shift the $1 billion case from bankruptcy court to a federal district judge.
Irving Picard, the trustee trying to clean up the financial mess left by Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, said in filings Friday in federal district court that the Wilpons and their partners in Sterling Equities are trying to do an end run around the bankruptcy court because they aren't happy with the way the case is going.
Picard called the move to get the case transferred to Manhattan federal court a "transparent attempt at forum shopping" that has no merit, according to the trustee's filings. The filing is the latest barb in an increasingly acrimonious legal battle that former Gov. Mario Cuomo is trying to mediate. Picard wouldn't comment further, spokeswoman Amanda Remus said.
Last month the Wilpons and their partners filed papers in federal district court accusing Picard of unfairly attacking them and saying the issues in the case were so substantial that they cried out for the intervention of a federal district judge to resolve. Picard sued the Wilpons last year to retrieve $300 million in profits the family was paid by Madoff, as well as $700 million in initial investments.
In his latest filings Picard said the case had nothing more than garden variety bankruptcy law issues that should remain in a bankruptcy court.
A spokesman for the Wilpons and Sterling couldn't be reached late Friday.
The Wilpons' move was seen by some legal observers as a move to get a more sympathetic hearing for their cause and comes on the heels of efforts by some banks and Madoff investors overseas to do the same thing.
John Coffee, a securities law scholar at Columbia University, said district court judges are viewed by some lawyers as more neutral arbiters since bankruptcy courts have the primary obligation to find as many assets as they can to pay claims.
