Madoff trustee sues TH Lee affiliate, wants $ blns back

The trustee seeking to recover money for defrauded former clients of Bernard Madoff filed dozens of lawsuits on Tuesday to recover hundreds of millions of dollars, including one seeking money from an affiliate of private equity executive Thomas H. Lee.
Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee, had filed 49 lawsuits by noon in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan.
The filings are part of a series of "clawback" lawsuits that Picard has brought against investors who withdrew money from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Advisors LLC before that firm's December 11, 2008 collapse.
Picard through September 30 has recovered $1.5 bln for Madoff victims. He has filed lawsuits to recover more than $18 bln, including $2 bln from Swiss bank UBS AG; sums from "feeder funds" that sent client money to Madoff; and various amounts from Madoff relatives, including his wife Ruth.
The trustee must sue before the two-year anniversary of the demise of Madoff's firm. He is seeking sums withdrawn in the six prior years, a limitation imposed under New York law.
Madoff, 72, pleaded guilty in March 2009 to running what prosecutors called a $65 bln Ponzi scheme. He is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison.
Picard's lawsuit against Blue Star Investors LLC, the Lee affiliate, resembles many of his clawback lawsuits.
According to the complaint, Blue Star had since December 11, 2002 received $51.75 mln from Madoff's firm, of which $19.67 mln represented "fictitious profits," in that Blue Star withdrew more than it had invested.
Lee later received improper sums transferred from Blue Star and is responsible to repay them, the complaint said.
"Defendant has received $19,667,135 of other people's money," wrote Richard Bernard, a lawyer representing Picard. Both are partners at Baker & Hostetler LLP in New York.
Lee could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for Picard had no immediate comment on the trustee's imminent plans to file lawsuits.
Picard has said he would sue Madoff clients, including perhaps 1,000 individuals, whom he considers "net winners" for having withdrawn more from Madoff's firm than they had invested.
Many of these investors consider themselves victims, and say they should be compensated based on sums, even if false, shown on their final account statements. Some are appealing the rejection of this approach by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland, who oversees the liquidation of Madoff's firm.