Baseball season hasn’t started yet, but the Mets are already making headlines: Today, the team’s owners agreed to a settlement in regard to their involvement with Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff.
Owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz have agreed to pay $162 million after being sued by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the Madoff victims. As part of the settlement, Picard will drop claims that the pair willfully ignored the fraud.
The money doesn’t have to paid immediately and the pair can still make claims of their own losses. They will surrender these claims against the bankruptcy estate and after three years make payments to cover any amount not resolved by their claims. Wilpon and Katz will personally guarantee up to $29 million of the settlement. Although the settlement may be considered steep by some, it is less than the $300 million that was originally at stake, which could have forced the two to lose control of the team.
