>>>The Wilpons have been trying to replace roughly $750 million they lost by investing with convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, a source said.
In addition, they are now in settlement talks with Irving Picard, the trustee for the Madoff estate, who claims Sterling is a “net winner” that withdrew $48 million more from two Madoff funds than it invested.<<<
So did the lose $750 million with Maddoff or make $48 million in profits? So much of the reporting on the Maddoff scandal has been sloppy and unclear from the beginning.
Did they really LOSE $750 million or was did they have $750 million in phony profits wiped out when the ponzi scheme collapsed?
Good questions----the crux of the matter is not how much they supposedly lost, but how much they took out.
Naturally, the Wilpons do not want details of their Madoff doings revealed----but we have read dribs and drabs. For instance their pal Larry King told GQ mag that the W’s lost almost a billion dollars with Madoff.
TO THE WILPONS anything---even if only on paper---is a loss to them.
Rumor also has it that the Wilpon’s also withdrew somewhere in the area of 550 mil to use for the CitiField construction. They also thought that they had over 500 mil still left in the investment after the large withdrawal.This is the second ponzi scheme the Wilpon’s have been involved in over the past few years. In 2009 Fred Wilpon and co-owner Saul Katz agreed to turn over 12.9 million after their firm, Sterling Securities withdrew 30 mil from a Hedge fund named Bayou Group which was a ponzi scheme.