Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Syrian stock market starts trade

Trading on Syria's stock exchange has officially begun, marking a crucial step as the country liberalises its state-controlled economy.

Finance Minister Mohammed al-Hussein rang the trading bell at a launch ceremony for the long-delayed Damascus Securities Exchange.

The exchange will be open two days a week and six companies can be traded.

Syria has embarked on Chinese-style market reforms in recent years as it tries to improve its economic position.

The oil reserves the country has relied upon are dwindling and the country is looking to other sectors to boost the economy.

Since 2004, nine private-sector banks have opened and restrictions on foreign exchange transactions have been relaxed.

The exchange was opened on a trial basis last month.

An earlier stock exchange was closed down four decades ago.

"The DSE was a dream and now has become a reality despite the fears and scepticism of some," the official SANA news agency said.

The Financial Times reported that the six companies that can be traded are Banque Bemo Saudi Franci, Bank of Syria and Overseas, United Group for Publishing, Advertising and Marketing, Arab Bank-Syria, Alahlia Company for Transport, and Bank Audi-Syria.

A further four companies have applied to list.

Fleetwood Enterprises, RV Maker, Seeks Bankruptcy

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., the maker of motor homes and camping vans, filed for bankruptcy and may sell itself after losing more than 98 percent of its market value last year as U.S. shipments fell to a 30-year low.

The 59-year-old company, which had a loss every year since 2001, has assets of $558.3 million and debt of $518 million, according to Chapter 11 papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, California, where it is based.

“We will use the Chapter 11 process to more rapidly restructure our overhead, pursue potential buyers and definitively resolve our debt issues,” Fleetwood Chief Executive Officer Elden Smith said today in a statement.

Confidence among U.S. consumers plunged to a record low in February amid a deepening U.S. recession and a drop in demand for items such as cars and homes. Recreational-vehicle maker Monaco Coach Corp. filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, while Winnebago Industries Inc. in December reported a $9.6 million quarterly loss that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Fleetwood has more than 60,000 creditors, court papers show. Its biggest unsecured creditor is Bank of America Corp., which may be owed $62.2 million. Caspian Capital Management LLC and Angelo, Gordon & Co. have unsecured claims of $32.4 million and $20 million, respectively.

RV Sales Plunge

Fleetwood had 5,500 workers in November, when it began firing employees and said it would close plants. Recreational-vehicle shipments fell 72 percent that month to the lowest since at least 1978. The company reduced its workforce to about 3,000 at 15 plants in 10 states. Fleetwood started in 1950 by making homes in factories and entered the RV market in 1964.

Demand for recreational vehicles sagged last year as gasoline and diesel prices rose to record highs. The lack of available credit is causing buyers to delay purchases and dealers to keep inventory low, University of Michigan researcher Richard Curtin said in a Dec. 4 note.

In the statement, Fleetwood said it will close its travel- trailer division, which had losses of $16.8 million last year and $65.3 million in 2007. The company said it will also seek a so- called debtor-in-possession bankruptcy loan from its senior secured lenders.

Fleetwood’s chief financial officer, Andrew Griffiths, said in court papers that the company sells through more than 2,150 dealers in the U.S. and Canada, which Fleetwood supports with warranties.

Reduced Liquidity

“A failure to generate sufficient cash from operations has reduced Fleetwood’s liquidity,” the company said in court papers. As a result the company cut spending on machinery, equipment and research, which had “a negative effect on sales and earnings.”

Fleetwood’s debt includes a secured credit facility of $135 million, 14 percent secured notes of $81.4 million and 6 percent notes of $151.3 million, court papers show. The company has 289 lawsuits pending in federal and state courts and in two Canadian provinces over warranties and personal injuries.

The company also makes multifamily residences and military barracks, and runs a fiberglass manufacturing operation and a lumber brokerage business, court papers show. Fleetwood’s 44 subsidiaries also filed for bankruptcy.

The case is: In re Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., 6:09-bk-14254, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California (Riverside).

Kodak, MGM Mirage Among Firms at Highest Default Risk

Eastman Kodak Co. and MGM Mirage are among 283 U.S. companies likeliest to default, about a quarter of speculative-grade issuers, as a deepening recession raises the risk that borrowers may miss interest payments.

The number of high-yield, high-risk issuers on the “Bottom Rung” list compiled by Moody’s Investors Service almost doubled from 157 a year earlier, the New York-based ratings company said in a report published today.

The extra yield investors demand to own speculative-grade bonds is surging at the fastest pace since November on concern the longest recession since at least 1982 may turn into a depression, pushing company defaults to a record this year. Junk bonds have lost 8.5 percent since Feb. 10.

“The current Bottom Rung list provides ample evidence of a severe default cycle,” analysts David Keisman, Tom Marshella and Jennifer Brown wrote in the report.

More than 23 percent of all U.S. speculative-grade companies are on Moody’s list, compared with 9 percent before the credit crisis. So-called junk-graded companies worldwide defaulted on their bonds at a rate of 5.2 percent in February, the ratings firm said in a separate report last week, as $1.2 trillion of bank losses combined with a global recession hamper borrowers’ finances. Moody’s expects the default rate to rise to 14.8 percent by the end of this year.

Weaker Consumer Spending

Companies facing weaker consumer spending, such as auto, retail and media firms, are “highly represented” on the list, Moody’s said.

MGM Mirage, which owns 10 Las Vegas casinos and was added to the “Bottom Rung” this quarter, has $8.1 billion of bonds outstanding, with $1.28 billion coming due this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gambling revenue in Las Vegas, the biggest betting center in the U.S., fell the most on record last year, causing declining sales at MGM Mirage.

Yvette Monet, a spokeswoman for MGM Mirage, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Rochester, New York-based Kodak, another new entrant, has $1.4 billion of bonds outstanding, including a $500 million facility maturing in October 2013, Bloomberg data show. Kodak, founded in 1880 by camera pioneer George Eastman, saw its profitable film business “evaporate” as digital cameras gained dominance, Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez said in an interview on Feb. 5.

‘Financially Solid’

“Any speculation, however informed, suggesting that Kodak is less than financially sound is irresponsible,” said Kodak spokesman David Lanzillo. “Kodak is financially solid, and we are taking the right actions to ensure that we remain a strong and enduring competitor.”

Jeffrey Benner, a spokesman at Moody’s, said he couldn’t immediately comment.

Speculative-grade debt is ranked below Baa3 by Moody’s. “Bottom Rung” companies are ranked six steps lower at B3 with a negative outlook or on review for downgrade, or have probability of default ratings of Caa1 or lower, Moody’s said.

Spreads on high-yield bonds widened 127 basis points last week, the biggest increase since the week ended Nov. 21, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.’s U.S. Corporate High-Yield Master index. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Lear Corp., the world’s No. 2 maker of automobile seats, also became one of the companies most at risk of defaulting in the first quarter, according to the Moody’s report. Mel Stephens, a spokesman at the Southfield, Michigan-based company, which posted a fourth-quarter loss of $688.2 million in January, wasn’t immediately available to comment.

Moody’s “Bottom Rung” is a new database and quarterly publication, the ratings company said. The list will be updated monthly.

Palm Confident About Pre Phone

Smart phone maker Palm is doubling down on its new Pre phone by saying it plans to raise $83.9 million with a new stock offering to bolster the product's launch.

Palm said Monday it boosted a previously announced public offering to 23.125 million shares, from 18.5 million, and priced the stock at $6.00. The company's stock opened at $6.50 Tuesday and recently traded at $6.85, up 83 cents, or 13.8%.

Analysts have questioned whether the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's cash flow could sustain the rollout effort for the widely anticipated Palm Pre, a new smart phone set to launch in the first half of the year. Shrinking demand for Palm's older models has battered the company's sales.

Matthew Thornton, an analyst with Avian Securities in Boston, said Palm exercised a clause that forced its largest shareholder, hedge fund Elevation Partners, to remarket the 49.0% of stock it already owned.

Elevation, which bought shares at $3.25, will end up getting $49.0 million back. According to Thornton, it has already reinvested that money in more Palm shares -- a vote of confidence for the future of Palm. Elevation now owns a 33.0% stake in Palm.

Elevation Partners also has an investment in Forbes.

Palm has been navigating troubled waters of late. The smart phone maker last week warned investors that its sales for its fiscal third quarter fell more than 70.0%, based on preliminary estimates. The company blamed falling demand for its older phones, the weak global economy and late shipments of its Treo phone. (See "Palm Slapped By Dwindling Sales.")

Palm also said its next quarter will be tough, as sales of existing products continue to fall and profit margins thin.

Delta Air’s Cuts, Slumping Demand Signal More Reductions Needed

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Continental Airlines Inc. said trans-Atlantic travel demand is still weakening because of the recession, suggesting that U.S. carriers may need deeper reductions in flying.

Delta, the world’s largest carrier, said today it will trim an additional 10 percent of international seats in the last four months of 2009 and that it may eliminate more jobs. Continental said traffic to Europe is down “significantly” while Southwest Airlines Co., which flies only in the U.S., reported that March has been even slower than February.

Their comments indicate that the industry’s contraction isn’t over after the biggest U.S. airlines cut 29,400 jobs and parked more than 500 jets since the start of 2008 as part of plans to shrink seating capacity by about 10 percent.

“We are encouraged to see Delta responding to worsening passenger demand, and expect most mainline peers to react with similar reductions,” Standard & Poor’s analyst Jim Corridore in New York wrote in a note today. He rates Delta as “buy.”

Any further capacity cuts at Houston-based Continental would be done “in tandem” for domestic and international flights, President Jeff Smisek said at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. airlines conference in New York.

Continental didn’t change its previous forecast for seating capacity in its main jet operations to decline by 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent for the full year.

Overseas, Domestic Routes

“The trans-Atlantic is weak from a business travel perspective,” Smisek said. “We look on a market-by-market basis and trim capacity where we think it’s appropriate, and that includes domestic capacity as well.”

The “worsening global economy” is deepening Atlanta-based Delta’s pullback overseas, Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson and President Ed Bastian said in a memo to employees today. The airline didn’t say how the cuts may alter its forecast for reducing flying by 6 percent to 8 percent in 2009.

Delta will have to “reassess our staffing needs,” Anderson and Bastian wrote, without giving details. New reductions would add to the elimination of almost 2,100 jobs with a buyout program in February, which followed 6,000 cuts at Delta and its newly acquired Northwest Airlines.

The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index rose as much as 7.1 percent on optimism that cost savings will help preserve projected profits. Continental led the gains, climbing 94 cents, or 15 percent, to $7.38 at 12:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Dwindling Traffic

The six biggest U.S. carriers posted a combined 11 percent drop last month in passenger traffic, or miles flown by paying passengers. UAL Corp.’s United Airlines fell for the 18th straight time, while AMR Corp.’s American Airlines was down for the 12th month in a row.

Southwest’s February traffic tumbled 6 percent, its sixth decline in eight months. The Dallas-based carrier will break a 20-year growth streak this year as it trims flying by 4 percent.

“It appears the first week of March is weaker still than what we had in February,” CEO Gary Kelly said at the JPMorgan conference.

Southwest’s unit revenue, or how much it takes in for each passenger flown a mile, was down about 7 percent in the first week of this month compared with a year earlier, he said.

“I don’t see that we’re stable on the revenue front at this point,” Kelly said.

United Technologies to Cut 11,600 Jobs Worldwide

United Technologies Corp. plans to cut 11,600 jobs as the global recession and credit crunch lead to lower sales and profit than previously projected by the maker of Otis elevators and Carrier air conditioners.

The company also will reduce its share buyback plan by 50 percent to $1 billion, Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies said in a statement today.

United Technologies said it is responding to “contracting markets worldwide.” As a result, sales will be about $55 billion this year, or $2.7 billion less than it forecast in December. Chief Executive Officer Louis Chenevert said an economic recovery that the company previously anticipated would start in the second half of this year now “appears unlikely.”

“The scale of this economic downturn has led to this un- surprising capitulation,” Rob Stallard, a New York-based analyst with Macquarie Capital USA, wrote today in a report to clients. He rates the shares “neutral” and doesn’t own any. “We believe it is a more realistic assessment of the challenges” United Technologies faces.

The company now forecasts per-share profit of $4 to $4.50, including 30 cents to 40 cents for the new restructuring plan, net of anticipated one-time gains of $200 million to $350 million. In January the company repeated a per-share profit range for this year of $4.65 to $5.15, compared with $4.90 in 2008.

United Technologies, which had sales of $58.7 billion last year, rose $2.31, or 6.2 percent, to $39.87 at 11:29 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares dropped 43 percent in the year through yesterday.

‘Fundamentally Reorganize’

“We’ll fundamentally reorganize United Technologies so when markets recover this cost structure will not come back,” Chenevert said today at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. aviation & transportation conference in New York.

The company will change its overhead structure “across the board,” he said.

“It’s a reset to reflect the new realities of the economy,” Howard Rubel, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. in New York, who recommends buying the shares, said in an e-mail. “The new game plan should work.”

Including actions for both 2008 and this year, the company’s total workforce will shrink by about 8 percent, or 18,000 workers, the company said. United Technologies had 223,100 employees worldwide as of Dec. 31.

The company in January said it planned to accelerate restructuring and that its December forecast was under pressure because of deteriorating conditions.

“We view UTX’s actions as prudent, given the sharp contraction in the capital goods marketplace,” said Joel Levington, a director at Hyperion Brookfield Asset Management Inc. in New York. “The company’s decision to curb its share- repurchase activities shows a strong commitment to maintaining a robust balance sheet and good liquidity.”

Bernanke Urges Rules Overhaul to Stem Risk Build-Ups

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged a sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial regulations in an effort to smooth out the boom-and-bust cycles in financial markets.

“We should review regulatory policies and accounting rules to ensure that they do not induce excessive” swings in the financial system and economy, the central bank chief said today in remarks prepared for an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Bernanke recommended that lawmakers and supervisors rethink everything from the amounts firms set aside against potential trading losses and deposit-insurance fees to protections for money-market funds. His remarks reflect a judgment that the U.S., just like emerging-market nations in the past, failed to properly manage a flood of capital over the past decade and a half.

Bernanke also reiterated his call for an agency to take on overarching responsibility for financial stability. While he didn’t specify which regulator should take that job, he noted that the Fed was first formed to address banking panics and said the initiative would “require” some role for the central bank.

Congress and the Obama administration are embarking on the broadest revamp of the oversight of U.S. finance since the Great Depression. Bernanke’s speech marks the Fed’s contribution to the policy debate.

Rival Regulators

Analysts are skeptical that the Fed will be the sole agency to emerge with more supervisory powers because Congress has been critical of the Fed’s regulatory oversight as the crisis grew.

Politicians and the public will “ask what was the Fed doing not only in 2007 and 2008, but what was it doing in 2005” during the credit boom, said Dino Kos, managing director at Portales Partners LLC in New York, and a former markets director of the New York Fed.

A system of multiple regulators “is in place for a reason, and it will be tough to overcome some of those political and jurisdictional battles,” said Timothy Adams, a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary in the administration of George W. Bush and managing director of the Lindsey Group in Fairfax, Virginia.

The Fed chief also reiterated that the central bank, U.S. Treasury and other regulators “will take any necessary and appropriate steps” to ensure banks have capital to “function well in even a severe economic downturn.”

‘Forceful’

“Governments around the world must continue to take forceful and, when appropriate, coordinated actions to restore financial market functioning and the flow of credit,” Bernanke said today. “Until we stabilize the financial system, a sustainable economic recovery will remain out of reach.”

Referring to the stress test regulators will use to determine whether banks need more capital, Bernanke said an adverse scenario “involves unemployment averaging over 10 percent for a period, which we view as certainly well within the realm of possibility.” That outcome isn’t the “central tendency” of most forecasts, he said in response to an audience question.

Among the biggest challenges faced by regulators is addressing the issue of banks that are so big and interconnected with other firms that their failure would put the entire banking system at risk.

Bernanke said firms that are too big to fail are “an enormous problem.” Large firms will require “especially close” oversight in the future, he said. Regulators need the authority to seize such firms, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. already has for deposit-taking institutions, he said.

Money Funds

Among other changes, Bernanke urged steps to protect against an outflow of money from money-market mutual funds, and said one market where banks and securities firms finance themselves -- known as the triparty repo market -- may need to move to a central clearing system.

“Given how important robust payment and settlement systems are to financial stability, a good case can be made for granting the Federal Reserve explicit oversight authority for systemically important payment and settlement systems,” Bernanke said.

The Fed chairman also called for a review of accounting and capital guidelines that may cause banks to pull back in downturns.

“We should review capital regulations to ensure that they are appropriately forward-looking, and that capital is allowed to serve its intended role as a buffer -- one built up during good times and drawn down during bad times,” the chairman said.

Accounting Changes

“Further review of accounting standards governing valuation and loss provisioning would be useful, and might result in modifications to the accounting rules that reduce their pro- cyclical effects,” Bernanke said.

Asked about rules that require companies to value some investments at their current market values, Bernanke said “I strongly endorse the basic proposition of mark-to-market, which is that we should make our financial institutions’ balance sheets as transparent, as clear as possible.” He added that he “would not support any suspension of mark-to-market.”

Still, in periods of financial stress, when some markets don’t exist or are highly illiquid, “the numbers that come out can be misleading or not very informative,” Bernanke said. Regulators could provide “guidance” on reasonable ways to value assets, he said.

‘Systemic Risk’

U.S. lawmakers, while agreeing on the need for federal supervision of “systemic risk,” have yet to agree on which agency should assume that role and its necessary statutory power.

Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said last month he plans by April to release a draft of legislation designating the Fed as the overseer.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd voiced doubt last month that the central bank is up to the task, calling its regulation and consumer protection “abject failures.”

“The question is whether we should be giving you a bigger plate, or whether we should be putting the Fed on a diet,” Dodd told Bernanke at a hearing last month, noting that monetary policy should remain the Fed’s top priority.

“When you keep asking an agency to take on more and more, it becomes less and less likely that agency will succeed at any of it,” said Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut.

The Fed supervises about 900 state banks and is the primary regulator for bank holding companies. The Fed also writes consumer protection rules and has the final word on proposed mergers among bank holding companies.

Obama Plan

Bernanke’s comments come as the White House prepares a proposal for regulatory change. President Barack Obama has asked his economic team to shape legislative proposals within weeks.

The global financial crisis stemmed in part from a failure by government supervisors to accurately measure risk-taking by financial institutions and the ability of lenders and investors to exploit loopholes in oversight, regulators have said.

A review of financial regulators worldwide yields “no obvious model of success,” Robert Eisenbeis, chief monetary economist at Cumberland Advisors Inc. and former director of research at the Atlanta Fed, said yesterday. The task “will fall to the central bank because they are the only institution that has the unlimited resources to step in and do what needs to be done.”

Paul Volcker, an Obama adviser and former Fed chairman, called in January with other members of the Group of Thirty for a regulatory crackdown curtailing risk-taking by large financial institutions and limits to their share of deposits.

Led by Volcker, the panel of former central bankers, finance ministers and academics said regulators should impose capital limits on proprietary trading and bar large banks from running hedge funds.

Madoff to Be Questioned on Possible Lawyer Conflict

Ira Sorkin, the lawyer for accused fraudster Bernard Madoff, invested $18,860 with his client in the early 1990s through a retirement account, prosecutors said in papers filed before a hearing on whether he may continue to defend the money manager.

Sorkin told the government he “believes” he transferred this investment around 1995 to another brokerage and that he has had no investment with Madoff since then, prosecutors said in a March 3 letter to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York made public today.

Madoff, 70, arrived at a Manhattan courthouse this morning and will appear before Chin at 3 p.m. The judge will explore whether Sorkin has a conflict of interest in the case. Sorkin’s now-deceased father had an account with Madoff, and in 1992 the lawyer represented a Florida investment firm, Avellino & Bienes, that invested with Madoff.

The government’s letter provided the most detail to date of the two potential conflicts, both of which prosecutors say Madoff may waive. Prosecutors said Sorkin’s past investment with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, or BLMIS, doesn’t appear to be a conflict.

‘10 Years Ago’

Because Sorkin’s “investment was liquidated more than 10 years ago and Mr. Sorkin has had no investment with BLMIS since then, the government does not believe that these facts present any potential conflict,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marc Litt and Lisa Baroni said in the letter.

Sorkin transferred his deceased parents’ investment away from Madoff in August 2007, according to the letter.

“It will all come out in today’s hearings,” said Sorkin, a lawyer at Dickstein Shapiro LLP in New York, in a comment today.

Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 at his multimillion dollar apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side after allegedly confessing that he and his New York firm used new money to pay old investors in what he called a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. He hasn’t formally responded to the one count of securities fraud he currently faces, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Madoff, who is free on $10 million bail, has been ordered to remain in his home under house arrest.

He is set to appear in court again March 12, when he is scheduled to enter a plea to new criminal charges that will be filed against him and waive his right to a grand jury indictment. Defendants typically waive a grand jury indictment if they intend to plead guilty. Madoff has not indicated what his plea will be.

Pose a Conflict

In the government’s letter today, prosecutors said Sorkin’s representation of Avellino & Bienes and his parents’ investment pose a conflict. Sorkin may remain on the case if Madoff waives the conflicts, the government said.

Sorkin said in an interview last month that he met Madoff in the 1980s through one of the money manager’s longtime friends, Howard Squadron, the founding partner of New York law firm Squadron Ellenoff Plesent & Sheinfeld LLP. Squadron hired Sorkin in 1977 and again in 1997.

Sorkin represented Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Avellino & Bienes in 1992 after it was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The unregistered firm invested more than $441 million in client money with Madoff, according to court papers. The firm agreed to close the business and refund the money, the SEC said.

Michael Bienes told the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 8 that he lost millions of dollars and was wiped out after investing with Madoff.

‘Trial Witnesses’

“Avellino and Bienes, therefore, are potential trial witnesses against Madoff,” Litt and Baroni said in the letter. “These facts create a potential conflict of interest because Mr. Sorkin’s ability to cross-examine his former clients could be severely curtailed.”

Also, Sorkin’s parents invested about $900,000 with Madoff’s firm, prosecutors said. After their death, the investments were transferred to trust accounts set up for the benefit of Sorkin’s two sons, with Sorkin as trustee, according to the government.

“Documents provided by the government to Mr. Sorkin also show that the investment was transferred from BLMIS to Merrill Lynch in approximately August 2007,” the prosecutors wrote. “A situation may arise that could result in Mr. Sorkin having loyalties divided between his sons and Madoff,” especially in related civil litigation, prosecutors said.

Five Pages

The prosecutor’s letter included five pages of proposed questions that the government suggests Chin pose at today’s hearing. The questions ask whether Madoff is aware of the potential conflicts, is satisfied with Sorkin’s performance as a lawyer, wants to confer with another attorney and waives potential conflicts.

The day before he was arrested, Madoff told relatives his business was “one big lie,” prosecutors said in court paper.

Thousands of investors with Madoff’s firm have reported about $43 billion in losses, according to a Bloomberg tally of disclosures, news reports and court filings.

The investment by Sorkin’s father came to light last month with the filing of a list of Madoff clients in federal court. The elder Sorkin opened an individual retirement account that he left to the attorney’s mother in 2001, Sorkin said. When Sorkin’s mother died in 2007, the IRA was cashed out.

Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme, which would be the largest in history, went back at least to the 1970s, according to people familiar with the case.

Separately Irving Picard, the bankruptcy trustee for Madoff Securities, has been seeking to liquidate Madoff’s brokerage, find assets and distribute them to Madoff’s customers. So far, Picard and attorneys from the law firm Baker Hostetler LLP have found about $950 million in cash and securities.

The criminal case is U.S. v. Madoff, 08-Mag-02735, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)