Mets Gained $48M From Their Investments With Bernie Madoff

The Mets Limited Partnership -- which had "widely been rumored to have lost money investing with Bernard Madoff -- actually gained a net $48[M] from its dealings with the convicted swindler," according to a bankruptcy-court filing cited by Futterman & Efrati of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The filing is the "first documentation of how deeply invested" Mets Owner Fred Wilpon was with Madoff, a "longtime friend." The filing showed that the Mets Limited Partnership, "which is connected with Sterling Equities Inc., owner of the Mets, deposited about $523[M] into two accounts with Mr. Madoff -- and withdrew about" $571M. This makes the partnership a "'net winner' from the fraud and thus ineligible to receive compensation from the trustee, who is recovering assets for Madoff investors." The team in a statement said, "As has been stated previously, this has no effect on the operations of the New York Mets." The filing "didn't say when" the Mets partnership began investing with Madoff (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/21). In N.Y., Bruce Golding notes the Mets Limited Partnership "appears twice on a new list of 31 investors who took home more money from Madoff than they handed over." The list indicates the partnership had just "$829,230 purportedly on account with Madoff shortly before his colossal con collapsed in December" (N.Y. POST, 10/21).