ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's top court says a divorced Manhattan lawyer is stuck with his losses from an investment with disgraced financier Bernard Madoff that tanked two years after his divorce settlement.
The Court of Appeals has rejected Steven Simkin's argument that he and ex-wife Laura Blank mutually erred in believing they had $5.4 million in a fund that was actually "nonexistent."
The six judges rejected Simkin's claim he should get $2.7 million back from $6.25 million that Blank got as "an equitable distribution of property."
They say Simkin could have redeemed the investment until Madoff's Ponzi scheme began unraveling in 2008, and if it substantially gained value, Blank would be unable to reopen the settlement.
Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after revealing he cheated investors of roughly $20 billion.
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