Another US$2.5 billion has been returned to victims of Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.

These latest payments in the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), combined with the funds already returned to BLMIS customers, satisfy more than half of the total Madoff accounts with allowed claims, said the trustee in the case, Irving H. Picard.

Through this second distribution, approximately US$2.479 billion will be distributed on a pro rata basis to BLMIS accounts with allowed claims, Picard said, with 1,230 accounts receiving approximately 33.6% of the allowed claim amount of each individual account, unless the claim is fully satisfied. The average payment will be slightly more than US$2 million, the smallest check being US$1,784 and the largest US$526,865,667.

Of these 1,230 BLMIS accounts with allowed claims, 182 will now be fully satisfied by this latest distribution, bringing the total number of fully satisfied accounts to 1,074. The remaining partially satisfied accounts will be entitled to participate in future distributions.

“The second pro rata interim distribution, combined with the US$1.146 billion already advanced or distributed to BLMIS customers with allowed claims, results in a total of approximately US$3.625 billion returned to date to these victims of Bernard Madoff,” said Picard. “While this progress is extremely gratifying, we will not cease our work to continue recovering assets for the Customer Fund, and we will make additional distributions as soon as practicable.”

To date, Picard has recovered, or reached agreements to recover, almost US$9.2 billion, representing nearly 53% of the approximately US$17.3 billion in principal estimated to have been lost in the Ponzi scheme by direct BLMIS customers who filed claims.

“In addition to recovering as much stolen money as possible for Madoff’s victims, we are also moving forward aggressively to resolve litigation and appeals which are delaying further distributions to BLMIS customers,” said David Sheehan, chief counsel to the SIPA Trustee. “We are confident in our positions and we look forward to putting more recovered funds back in the hands of their rightful owners in the near future.

Sheehan notes that there are 229 claims remaining pending the outcome of ongoing litigation. Once the litigation is finally resolved, these claims may become allowed and, if allowed, would become eligible for all pro rata distributions to date. The trustee has reserved approximately US$3.46 billion to pay these potential claims.

The amounts recovered have been made possible through advances provided by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which is funded by securities industry assessments. It has advanced approximately US$621 million for administrative expenses in the BLMIS liquidation proceeding.