UM Grad Wilpon takes $162 million hit in Madoff Ponzi Scandal
U of M graduate Fred Wilpon, who donated heavily for the Wilpon Baseball and Softball complexes at Michigan, just agreed to pay $162 million to settle a lawsuit.
This is related to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. I don't know the Wilpon's net worth, but $162 million is a significant hit for anyone. The claim is that he should have known something was fishy in 25 years of investing with Madoff.
March 19th, 2012 at 11:19 AM ^
Obviously he should be moved to WR.
March 19th, 2012 at 11:23 AM ^
Weak Restitution?
Winnings Revoked?
Weep Restively?
March 19th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^
March 19th, 2012 at 11:26 AM ^
March 19th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^
I am sure at the moment he is pretty happy it wasn't any worse.
He will be paying just over half of what the suit was for. Further, he doesn't have to pay a dime for three years.
Now he has to get back to baseball, where he can work on shedding the title "Laughingstock of MLB Owners".
March 19th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^
Not as much as the trustee was seeking, but seems like the Wilpons and their investor group to the Mets read the tea leaves and decided to close this out, sooner rather than later.
March 19th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ^
too soon?
March 19th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
March 19th, 2012 at 11:36 AM ^
Given the free agents they've signed in the last ten years, that kind of a strategy can't possibly be any worse for the team.
March 19th, 2012 at 12:09 PM ^
It may not be as bad as it sounds. First as noted earlier he stood to lose a lot more. Second he (and his co-owner Katz) stand to get money from others as money is recovered. The estimates I've seen indicate that Wilpon will pay anywhere from nothing to $29 million by the time the fat lady sings -- and nothing is due for three years.
Edit: indeed, the Times is now reporting that they could wind up recovering a few million when all is said and done: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/sports/baseball/mets-owners-pay-162-million-to-settle-madoff-suit.html?_r=1&ref=baseball
March 19th, 2012 at 12:40 PM ^
I heard on the Herd that they have ~800 MM net worth, don't have to pay for 3 years, and the original suit was for 300MM. Colin's take was that the Wilpons came out looking pretty good from this, relatively speaking. I don't take any stock in that show, but he seemed to think it was a win.
I tend to agree that it's more good news than bad for the Wilpons, but as is usually the case, he's got a bunch of facts wrong. Among other things, the suit was originally for a billion. The judge had already ruled they were liabile for about $80 million. And, Colin doesn't talk about all of the other debt issues facing the Wilpons, including loans from Bank of America, moneys due on CitiField, etc. That said, their picture is much brighter today than it was a week ago.
raise the prices of the beer and hot dogs by a buck, and maybe jack up the cable package prices and they'll have it back in a couple years.
They may want to come up with a better team before starting to jack up prices. Best thing about this settlement is it gets part of the whole mess behind them and less in the news. The PR has been killing them