Suit: Mets Owners Ignored Madoff Warnings

Irving Picard, the trustee of Madoff's estate, is moving forward with a lawsuit against Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, who allegedly used profits from decades of investments with Madoff for their own gain, in spite of warnings that the Ponzi schemer might have been operating a fraud. The suit says the two used the profits to finance their own fortunes, putting money earned from the investments into family trusts, the Mets' pocket, real estate, and other business ventures. The suit's key claim is that Wilpon and Katz ignored warnings from fellow investors and financial institutions because they "made so much easy money from Madoff for so long." Madoff's estate is seeking a return of $300 million from Wilpon and Katz's "fictitious profits", and then an additional amount for willfully ignoring warnings of Madoff's fraud. According to a lawyer working for Picard, the suit may seek a total upward of $1 billion.