Irving Picard, the trustee who is overseeing the bankruptcy of Bernard Madoff's estate, has good news and bad news. According to a report he filed, he's found $849,000 for victims of the massive Ponzi scam, which is good...but during the same six-month period, he spent over $26 million, mostly on legal fees to Picard's firm. Bloomberg News reports, "Picard has recovered a total of about $1.5 billion for creditors of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC..." He also says he's "evaluated 14,030 investor claims as of Oct. 22 and approved 2,280" and "has committed to paying $738 million on behalf of the [SIPC]." Something else that is keeping Picard busy: Getting ready for those clawback lawsuits. more ›

Last night, the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's estate put the disgraced financier's Mets home opener tickets (well, the tickets are sort of the ones Madoff purchased) up for auction. However, the link from the Madoff Trustree website to the eBay auction is now invalid—the eBay page it brings up says, "This listing (170319289099) has been removed or is no longer available... If the listing was removed by eBay, consider it canceled." The listing was online last night (the bidding was at $1,700 around 11 p.m. for the pair of tickets in the Delta Club Gold section) and bidding was supposed to have ended tomorrow night. Mysterious! Update: The tickets are on eBay—the current bid is $1,500. more ›

Bernard Madoff's neighbors are praying the Post is right: The paper reports, "Top New York real-estate brokers have been asked to visit Madoff's tony penthouse at 133 E. 64th St., between Lexington and Park avenues, to assess its value, with an eye toward unloading it, one of the agents said yesterday." Apparently lawyers for the trustee overseeing the liquidation of the $50 billion Ponzi scheme mastermind's estate called up brokers. more ›