Home > Community > Financial Markets > UPDATE 1-NY Mets owners made about $48 mln in Madoff dealings

UPDATE 1-NY Mets owners made about $48 mln in Madoff dealings

Published: 21 Oct 2009 05:05:03 PST

Oct 21 - The owners of the New York Mets baseball team made about $48 million in dealings with swindler Bernard Madoff, court documents showed.

The Mets Limited Partnership, which is connected to the Wilpon family, led by Mets owner Fred Wilpon, deposited $522.8 million in two accounts with Madoff and withdrew $570.6 million, according to a Monday filing by court-appointed trustee Irving Picard.

The Mets reiterated in a statement that the investments with Madoff have "no effect on the operations of the New York Mets."

Earlier this year, Erin Arvedlund, author of "Too Good to Be True", a book on Madoff, said the Wilpon family would be forced to sell the Mets due to huge losses suffered in the Madoff swindle. ID:nN28373485

The Mets had said Arvedlund has no knowledge of the team or its finances and repeated previous statements that the team was not for sale.

Wilpon bought a stake in the Mets in 1980, raised his share to 50 percent six years later, and purchased the rest with his family and others in 2002.

The case is In re Securities Investor Protection Corp. vs. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-01789.