New York Divorce Report - New York's Divorce and Family Law Blog

Don’t you just love it when you are right?  Three years ago, I wrote about the lawyer who was trying to re-open his divorce settlement to recover his Madoff losses.  In consideration of the wife retaining the marital residence and other assets, the lawyer had retained his “investment” in Madoff funds. Of course, after the divorce, the Madoff investment became worthless.  The Husband wanted to  reopen the divorce settlement. At the time, I wrote: Had the account value gone up, it is doubtful that husband would have shared the profits with his ex-wife. Alternatively, had the wife poorly invested the cash... More

I previously wrote about a lawyer who was attempting to re-open his divorce settlement because, he claimed, there was a mutual mistake - he retained money invested with Madoff  in lieu of other assets retained by his wife.  Of course, the assets invested with Madoff proved to be worthless.   At that time, I opined (and the trial court agreed) that divorce settlement should not be opened.   I wrote: Had the wife participated with Madoff in the fraud or had knowledge of the wrong-doing, the husband might have a case. But, the husband simply made an unfortunate choice and, through no... More

To the list of things Bernard L. Madoff has been blamed for ruining — retirements, lives, reputations — add another: a clean breakup.” The New York Times is reporting that a husband (a lawyer), who, entered into a settlement agreement distributing marital assets, which included an investment in Madoff’s hedge fund, is seeking contribution from his ex wife for the post-divorce losses sustained in the Ponzi scheme. Rather than splitting an investment in the Madoff hedge fund, the husband gave the wife $2.7 million in cash and held onto the account. Of course, the account is now worthless. The husband... More