Picard comes up short
The mighty Irving Picard has struck out.
The trustee tasked with cleaning up Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme has settled with the Mets for a measly $162 million. Picard had originally sued for $1 billion before a judge tossed out $700 million of his suit.
Picard, who at one point had 1,000 suits seeking nearly $100 billion in damages and “fictional” profits, has been striking out with some of his biggest cases.
Last month, Judge Jed Rakoff tossed Picard’s $60 billion racketeering case involving Austrian banker Sonja Kohn. In November, another judge threw out $19 billion of Picard’s $19.9 billion case against JPMorgan.
Other cases have been dismissed or whittled down, including a $9 billion suit against HSBC.
“It’s a humiliating defeat for Picard,” said Helen Davis Chaitman, a lawyer representing Madoff victims who has battled Picard.

