Mixed reaction to Madoff-Wilpon deal

The $162 million settlement Monday between the owners of the New York Mets and Madoff estate trustee Irving Picard provoked mixed reactions among investors who lost money in the Ponzi scheme and their advocates.

Michael DeVita, 61, of Chalfont, Pa., who saw his own retirement nest egg go down the tubes along with his parents' life savings, called it a "sweetheart deal" that let the Mets off without paying anything close to the $1 billion Picard originally claimed while small investors continue to struggle.

"It's mind boggling," DeVita said. "If you have money and power, you can negotiate a very favorable deal. It tells me that either the case was not as strong as the trustee said, or the Mets had the money to drag it out in court until they got a favorable settlement."

Ronnie Sue Ambrosino, a former Long Islander financially wiped out by Madoff who now lives in Arizona, called the settlement a continuation of back-room maneuvering that has left small victims both uncompensated and confused about how much big players like the Mets knew about Madoff's scheme.

"I'm really disappointed in the fact that it didn't go to trial, because now the little investor will never know the facts," she said.

But Jerome Reismann, a Garden City lawyer who represents Madoff victims, called the settlement "a good deal for both sides."

Mets owners Saul Katz and Fred Wilpon and the family trusts they control, he said, escaped the stain of Picard's charge that they were "willfully blind" to the Madoff fraud - but they still paid a sizable sum, and Picard freed himself to pursue other claims while avoiding the risk of a loss at trial that might have fatally damaged his credibility.

"This gives the trustee a leg to say he got as much as possible," said Reismann. " . . . He hoped Wilpon and Katz would buckle, but they didn't."

Ron Stein, of Halesite, who heads a group called the Network for Investor Action and Protection, which includes many former Madoff investors, called the settlement an admission by Picard that he "overreached."

He also said a provision allowing the Mets owners to offset the $162 million with any recoveries they get for their overall losses of $178 million from the money Picard collects is likely to raise eyebrows among less wealthy investors who lost money but nonetheless face suits from Picard to pay back any partial payouts they got from Madoff.

"It will be ironic," Stein said, "if the small investors are actually the ones who are contributing funds to the property pool that the Mets owners are using to pay the settlement with."