A court-appointed New York City trustee is suing a Los Angeles money manager he says directed hundreds of millions of dollars in investments to financier Bernard Madoff.
Trustee Irving Picard says in a complaint filed Friday in Bankruptcy Court that Stanley Chais and his family made more than $1 billion in false earnings off Madoff's scheme. He claims the money came from the pockets of burned investors. He wants the money back.
Chais lawyer Eugene Licker says the Chais family has suffered "astounding and ruinous losses from the Madoff scheme."
Madoff pleaded guilty in March to charges his secretive investment advisory operation was a pyramid scheme. He faces up to 150 years in prison.
Picard is overseeing the liquidation of Madoff's assets. He says he plans to use sale proceeds to pay Madoff's victims.
