Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, owners of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, settled a lawsuit accusing them of benefiting from the Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff. As jury selection began, representatives of the Mets’ owners and trustee Irving Picard reached an agreement where Wilpon and Katz will pay $162 million beginning in three years.
The delay in payment will give Wilpon and Katz time to recover some (or all) of their $172 million claim against Madoff. The $162 million figure represents the amount of supposed profit the two men withdrew from their account with Madoff in the years before the scheme collapsed.
The settlement is viewed as a victory for Wilpon and Katz, who have had to borrow fund to keep the Mets going. And the team is losing fans after five straight seasons without a playoff appearance.
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