While most people were enjoying the tail end of a long holiday weekend, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan was busy Sunday delivering a key victory to foreign banks targeted by Irving Picard, the liquidation trustee for Bernard Madoff’s defunct investment firm.
In a decision that could have major implications for overseas financial institutions caught up in U.S. bankruptcy proceedings, Rakoff ruled that U.S. courts can’t hear many of the so-called avoidance actions Picard has brought on behalf of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme victims. Sunday’s ruling wipes out roughly 80 separate actions brought by Picard, including cases against Unicredit SA and BNP Paribas SA.
