$7.2Bn Recovery Is Challenged. As of today, Madoff trustee Irving Picard has been credited with having recovered about $11 billion of the $17.3 billion in invested principal estimated to be lost in the Madoff fraud.  Picard has done a masterful job extracting that much money from individuals and entities that had suspect ties to Bernie, or who withdraw much more money than they had invested with the Ponzi King. However, all that money is not in the bank, and the final numbers might look much different from today's interim figures as being available to Bernie's victimize investors.  Of course, there are more cases to be heard and potential clawbacks from investors, that collectively could involve or add billions more. $7.2Bn Picower Pact Challenged. Administrators for the estate of Jeffry Picower entered into a settlement with court-appointed trustee Picard, that called for the Estate to pay some $7.2 billion into the victims fund.  But 2 Madoff investors, who previously had filed their own lawsuits against Mr. Picower's estate, challenged the settlement, saying it improperly barred other lawsuits. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan dismissed the legal challenge to the $7.2 billion settlement between trustee Picard and the Picower estate made in January 2011.  In his 49-page order, the judge noted that one of the reasons for the estate's agreement to pay such a large amount - $7.2 billion - was that it was made on the condition that the Estate be protected against claims filed by other Madoff victims. For that reason, the judge dismissed the challenge by the 2 women - including the following statement in his written order:

"The bankruptcy court was correct in approving the settlement with the Picower defendants that was extraordinarily beneficial to the [Madoff] estate, and in enjoining claims against the Picower defendants duplicative of those brought by or which could have been brought by the trustee," the judge said.

Helen Davis Chaitman, a lawyer for the 2 investors challenging the settlement, said they would appeal to the Second Circuit. Trustee Now Closer to Collecting $5Bn. Yet, even with the win, the $7.2bn will only provide about $5bn to Bernie's victimized investors.  That's because Picard agreed on a $2.2 billion civil forfeiture with the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan.  Of course, this civil forfeiture agreement is separately being challenged before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Click to access the referenced story:   [WSJournal, 3/26/12].