Madoff Trustee Sues Mets Owners

The trustee seeking assets for victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s huge fraud on Tuesday sued the Wilpon family, the owners of the New York Mets, which had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the global Ponzi scheme.

Sterling Equities, the Wilpon-controlled company that owns the Mets, was named as a defendant in the case along with its partners, their family members and certain related trusts and entities. Mr. Wilpon and his family own Sterling — and the Mets — along with his longtime business partner, Saul Katz. Sterling and its related entities had dozens of investment accounts with Mr. Madoff.

The substance of the trustee’s claims against Sterling are unavailable because the complaint was filed under seal.

“We will have no further comment at this time,” said Sterling Equities in a statement. “Regardless of the outcome of these discussions, we want to emphasize that the New York Mets will have all the necessary financial and operational resources to fully compete and win. That is our commitment to our fans and to New York.”

This was printed in the New York Times on December 7, 2010 and was written by Peter Lattman and Michael Schmidt.

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