Trustee To Sue Madoff's Relatives For Ill-Gotten Gains

Irving Picard, the trustee who is liquidating whatever can be found of Ponzi king Bernard Madoff's fortune for in order to repay his thousands of victims, says that he's going to sue Madoff's two sons, Mark and Andrew, as well as his brother Peter and niece Shana, noting that they made $150 million over the years. All four were employed at Madoff's firm and Picard said he'll sue them for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, "Whether or not they have a criminal problem we will pursue them as far as we can pursue them and if that leads to bankrupting them, then that's what will happen."

Picard and chief counsel David Sheehan spoke to 60 Minutes and pointed out that the four made money from compensation, investing in the so-called fund, and were loaned money to buy multi-million properties—to the tune of $150 million. Picard said, "I believe that we can. The money that went to buy these houses under the law is called fraudulent transfers."

Mark and Andrew Madoff haven't spoken to either dad Bernie or mom Ruth since the scam was revealed. But Sheehan suspects that they knew about the fraud, since they were officers in the company, "If you were those sons, and you knew what you knew today about where all that money came from wouldn't you be embarrassed to keep that money? They should give it all back and if they don't give it all back, I think we have an obligation to go get it." And a 60 Minutes fun fact: Mark and Andrew are looking for $90 million in deferred compensation from the company!