WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 16, 2011 – Orlan Johnson, board chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms, issued the following statement today:
"Regarding the decision by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York upholding Trustee Picard's method of calculating investor losses for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the opinion confirms SIPC's position that the Trustee's calculation does the greatest good for the greatest number of Madoff victims, consistent with the statute SIPC administers and with past precedent on the matter.
This decision will advance the prospect of making a distribution of customer property and we look forward to getting funds to BLMIS customers as soon as possible. SIPC filed an extensive brief with the Court, which explains our position in detail."
SIPC has advanced $780,000,000 to the Trustee in the Madoff case, which has been distributed to customers.
The opinion from the court can be found at http://1.usa.gov/qAlG0y. SIPC's brief can be found here.