The trustee seeking to recoup money for defrauded ex-clients of Bernard Madoff filed dozens of lawsuits yesterday to recover hundreds of millions of dollars, including one seeking money from an affiliate of private-equity executive Thomas H. Lee.

The 49 filings by court-appointed trustee Irving Picard in US bankruptcy court in Manhattan are part of a series of “clawback” lawsuits that he has brought against investors who withdrew money from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Advisors LLC before that firm’s Dec. 11, 2008, collapse.

The lawsuit filed against Blue Star Investors, the Lee affiliate, claims that since Dec. 11, 2002, it received $51.75 million from Madoff’s firm, of which $19.67 million represented “fictitious profits,” in that Blue Star withdrew more than it had invested.

Lee later received improper sums transferred from Blue Star and now has to repay them, the complaint claims.