Replies

Leaving money with Madoff turned out to be a mistake, but suing his ex for him having made a bad decision in a divorce settlement was just plain stupid.

Madoff Investor Sues Ex-Wife for $2.7 Million Divorce Payment - BL, 2009 February 05, by Patricia Hurtado

A lawyer who said he had $5.4 million invested with Bernard Madoff sued his ex-wife for the $2.7 million he paid her in cash for the value of the account in a divorce settlement.
Steven Simkin, a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, sued his former wife, Laura Blank, seeking the return of the funds he paid her in 2006 when the couple divided assets as part of their uncontested divorce. Simkin said he and his wife, who were wed in 1973, both mistakenly believed the account at Madoff’s investment firm was worth $5.4 million.
He said he now knows the Madoff account is “worthless, literally not worth the paper on which the parties’ valuation rested.” Simkin alleges that his former wife was unjustly enriched and asks a court to order her to pay restitution or “reform” the distribution of marital assets.
“The agreement was unfair, unreasonable, and unconscionable, because it resulted in Laura receiving a far larger portion of the parties’ marital assets,” Simkin said in a complaint filed Feb. 3 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
“Laura has been unjustly enriched, having received millions of dollars based on an illusory and exaggerated value attributed to the ‘Account,’” Simkin said in the complaint.
$6.6 Million in Assets
Simkin said he paid his wife more than $6.6 million as part of their equitable distribution of property and assets, including their home in Scarsdale, New York, his law partnership and Blank’s Manhattan apartment. .....

Madoff Victim Can’t Redo $2.7 Million Divorce Deal, Court Rules - BL, 2009 December 25, by Linda Sandler and Patricia Hurtado

A New York real estate lawyer who paid his ex-wife $2.7 million of the supposed value of his account with Bernard Madoff can’t revise the agreement because he lost money in the Ponzi scheme, a New York judge ruled.
Steven Simkin, chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP’s real estate department, sued his former wife, Laura Blank, in February after Madoff’s fraud was exposed, saying she was unjustly enriched by the 2006 settlement. He lost in a Dec. 22 decision in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
Simkin is stuck with his decision to keep the account instead of withdrawing his money before the December 2008 collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, acting Justice Saralee Evans wrote. Other divorced couples may have had similar experiences, said Blank’s lawyer, Sarah Netburn of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP in New York.
“In New York City I’m sure there are dozens if not hundreds who got divorced in the relevant time period, and had this account, and made distributions,” she said.
Their situation is dramatized in the HBO show, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” where “Seinfeld” stars make appearances, she said. In the show, the character George divorces his wife Amanda, then tries to remarry her after losing all his money to Madoff, according to HBO’s Web site. .....

And this schmuck is a chairman of their real-estate department?