Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering

Making Money With Madoff: Baker & Hostetler’s Fees Reach $440 Million In Liquidation

220px-BernardMadoffbaker_hostetler_logoFor some, the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s firm is approaching the same levels of excess as the original crime. Irving Picard and his firm, Baker & Hostetler LLP, have just asked for an additional $50 million in fees and expenses for work between July 1 through Nov. 30. That would bring the total fees to . . . wait for it . . . $440 million.


The fees are paid by the Securities Investor Protection Corp., which compensates investors out of an insurance fund.

What is clear that, even if Bernie did not ultimately make a killing, his liquidators have and it is all perfectly legal.

Source: Bloomberg

20 thoughts on “Making Money With Madoff: Baker & Hostetler’s Fees Reach $440 Million In Liquidation”

  1. How about the Obama Admin (Eric Holder) circling the wagons around Jon Corzine; not only protecting him from returning the money he stole (billions) but a full-on refusal to question him regarding the “missing funds?” These misappropriated funds were used to hedge farming losses among other things. Absolutely no criminal charges. Can you believe the rank stench of corruption (business as usual) in this once great nation? The stealing that government agents are doing for themselves and their corporate pimps make Bernie a piker.

  2. You shouldn’t look at just the grand total of $440 million. You have to take into account the many hours of work that Baker & Hostetler’s attorneys have put into the case so far.

    Putting aside the different attorney rates that would apply (i.e., managing partner, partner, associate, etc.), To date, the firm has clocked 29,826.5 hours. That works out to an average hourly attorney rate of $14,751.98. I believe that $14,571.98 per hour is perfectly reasonable, given the immense complexities of shaking down those in the Madoff network.

    Admittedly, hiring some enforcers from The Outfit at only $5,000 per hour would be far more cost-efficient, and they would do a much better collection job as well, but all in all, it’s no more waste than the usual government rat hole.

    It pays to be politically connected. But you’ve got to pay to play.

  3. I wonder if the customs guys allowed Bernie’s granpa to remove the e letter from Madeoff when they hit Ellis Island and emigrated here.

  4. Bron 1, May 1, 2013 at 8:58 am

    what exactly are they doing? I would have done it for $300 million.
    ==================================
    LOL.

    There are “loopholes” that are activated when sexy money is exposed:

    The Civil War was still nine years away when Hamilton County’s oldest continuing court case was filed in 1852 on behalf of a blind Cincinnati banker looking to commemorate his wife and his beliefs.

    Now, 160 years later, the Probate Court case involving the estate of Ethan Stone is likely coming to a close.

    And with the case’s end comes a surprising revelation: Some Cincinnati residents, it turns out, don’t own their own land.

    “My guess is it’s the oldest case in the state of Ohio, possibly in the country, where paperwork has been continuously filed,” Hamilton County Probate Court Judge Jim Cissell said. The case “goes right back to the beginning of the Probate Court itself.”

    The case is loaded with local history, including connections to two U.S. presidents, the creation of what became the University of Cincinnati and the establishment of 16 parcels of land where today’s residents, who think they own the land on which their homes sit, could be in for a surprise.

    (Estate of Denial, Ohio).. I wonder if this has anything to do with why John “Agent Orange” Boehner runs unopposed in Ohio?

  5. nick spinelli 1, May 1, 2013 at 9:29 am

    There are many attorney jokes that apply here. There are victims for whom this is not a joke, so I’ll refrain. This despicable human[Madoff] preyed primarily on his own. A theme I have seen over my career, and one I always point out when I see it.
    =========================================
    Yep.

    Remember Cypher in The Matrix?

  6. If you want a better government, look for more people like Warren and support them in elections.. THAT’s how things will change. -Kathleen Clohessy

    Yep.

  7. Re: the anonymous comment about the mortgage fiasco…Elizabeth Warren continues to try to get this information but is being stonewalled by the regulators. If you want a better government, look for more people like Warren and support them in elections.. THAT’s how things will change.

  8. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my research indicates that the SPIC is NOT taxpayer funded, therefore the taxpayers are not technically paying these fees. Of course, we all pay in the end because Wall Street funds the SPIC and WE fund Wall Street through the manipualtions of our legislators in Washington, (who Wall Street owns.)

    Of note is the congratualtions from the SPIC board to Irving Picard here http://www.sipc.org/Media/NewsReleases/Release20130401.aspx

    Not that they do NOT mention Picards $500 million in fees. What a joke!

  11. You can get fine California wines for $20-30. Much of the higher end stuff is mere pretense.

  12. $100 bottle of wine? A friend of mine is a wine connoisseur and I wanted to buy him a bottle of wine for Christmas one year and I saw an advert for a “100 point” bottle of wine for $500!

    Remember the question in the movie CHINATOWN: “What can you get for more money, a better shirt?” Well the answer is: “ANYTHING”!

  13. It’s the way of our world.

    An old story picked up by Matt Taibbi:

    While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion

    April 26, 3:53 PM ET

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/while-wronged-homeowners-got-300-apiece-in-foreclosure-settlement-consultants-who-helped-protect-banks-got-2-billion-20130426

    “The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire “independent” consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.

    Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.

    In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits.”

    I know a young lawyer — fresh out of law school — who pocketed some of it.

  15. There are many attorney jokes that apply here. There are victims for whom this is not a joke, so I’ll refrain. This despicable human[Madoff] preyed primarily on his own. A theme I have seen over my career, and one I always point out when I see it.

  16. Another example of the failure to regulate costing taxpayers a bundle. Does this insurance fund require covered firms to keep sufficient reserves or does the agency actually regulate these firms. NO, they don’t. They just make us pay and pay. I would be willing to bet there are more than one $100 bottle of wine in that bill.

  17. Private jets don’t come cheap, you guys. The stratosphere is the limit!!

  19. what exactly are they doing? I would have done it for $300 million.

  20. Crime pays…. Or the tax payers do… Right Elaine…..

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