Irving H. Picard v. RAR Entrepreneurial Fund, Ltd.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:20-cv-01029
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Picard v. RAR Entrepreneurial Fund, Judge Furman prepared for trial by identifying the remaining issue and directing the parties on pretrial matters.
Irving H. Picard and RAR Entrepreneurial Fund, Ltd.; the order also addressed the issues to be presented to the jury and the parties’ trial materials.
What happened
Irving H. Picard v. RAR Entrepreneurial Fund, Ltd. concerns money that RAR received from Bernard L. Madoff’s investment business during the fraud scheme. Picard, the trustee, seeks to recover $12,800,065 transferred to RAR.
The court said it had already decided two elements of Picard’s claim as a matter of law. The remaining question for the jury was whether the transferred money came from Madoff’s limited liability company. The court also said it was inclined to treat a related question about whether money in two bank accounts was customer property as a legal issue for the court, rather than a factual issue for the jury, unless disputed facts required jury consideration.
Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered the final pretrial conference and trial to proceed in the identified courtroom, directed the parties to address the proposed case description and related issues, and required RAR to file an amended exhibit list.
The detailed version
- Irving H. Picard v. RAR Entrepreneurial Fund, Ltd. · No. 1:20-cv-01029
- Jesse Furman
- Feb. 28, 2022
Background
The case arises from Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The opinion describes the scheme as one in which Madoff used money from incoming investors to pay earlier investors and create the appearance of profitable securities trades. After the scheme was discovered in 2008, Madoff’s limited liability company was placed into bankruptcy under the Securities Investor Protection Act, or SIPA. Irving H. Picard was appointed as the SIPA trustee and is authorized to recover certain money paid out by the company.
RAR Entrepreneurial Fund, Ltd. was a customer that received more money from Madoff than it had invested. The opinion states that RAR did not know at the time that the money came from other customers’ investments rather than legitimate trading profits. Picard seeks to recover $12,800,065 transferred to RAR.
Issues Remaining for Trial
The court stated that it had already decided two elements of Picard’s claim as a matter of law. The remaining issue for the jury was whether the transferred money was “an interest of the debtor”—that is, whether it came from Madoff’s limited liability company.
The parties had also identified a question concerning whether money in two JPMorgan Chase Bank accounts was “customer property” under SIPA § 78lll(4) and therefore recoverable by the trustee. The court was inclined to treat that question as a legal issue for the court, rather than a factual issue for the jury, to the extent it had not already been decided in an earlier summary-judgment ruling. The court directed the parties to address whether any disputed facts would require jury consideration.
Order
The court stated that the final pretrial conference and trial would be held in Courtroom 318 of the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse. It directed the parties to raise objections or suggestions concerning the proposed description of the case for jury selection and to address the bank-account issue. The court also required RAR to file its amended exhibit list before the conference. The order did not resolve the remaining trial issue or enter a final judgment on Picard’s recovery claim.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.