The AM Roundup: Madoff Victims Start Collecting

[WSJ_law_blog]

Let’s touch off this morning’s roundup with a smattering of Madoff news:

Victims Start Recovering: The Securities Investor Protection Corp. said it has committed to advance $61.4 million to Madoff victims so far, and expects that number to hit $100 million by Memorial Day. In a briefing Thursday, Irv Picard, the trustee in charge of liquidating Madoff’s firm and SIPC chief Stephen Harbeck noted that the pace of determining customer payouts has picked up. So far, Picard has identified and recovered about $1 billion in Madoff-related assets and has filed six suits to recover an additional $10.1 billion. WSJ; NYT.

Sentencing Delayed: We walked by the Metropolitan Correctional Center the other day and wondered how Bernie was holding up. Turns out he’ll be there a little longer than planned — his sentencing was delayed from June 16 to June 29. WSJ; Bloomberg; click here for an earlier post on how Bernie’s sentencing process was likely to unfold.

In news outside of Bernieville:

Chevron’s Ecuador Headache: Chevron is preparing for a ruling by a lone judge in a tiny courtroom on the top floor of a shopping center in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. At stake: Huge damages over pollution allegedly caused by the oil giant’s exploration. NYT.

Ghost Justice: In this weekend’s “Shakespeare and the Law” conference at the University of Chicago Law School, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will appear as the Ghost in “Hamlet” in Hyde Park on Friday, with an encore presentation slated for Saturday. Last we checked, the ghost didn’t have any lines, so we’re trusting the justice will fare just fine. Plus, it’s not the justice’s first star turn: in 2007, he appeared in this episode of NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!