Madoff trustee: Allowable claims under $1.1M to be all paid

NEW YORK (AP) - The trustee recovering money lost by investors with imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff reported a new milestone Tuesday, saying a new distribution will mean allowable claims of $1.1 million or less will have been fully reimbursed.

Trustee Irving Picard made the announcement as he asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to approve $1.18 billion to be distributed to investors. Another $320 million would be held in reserve for use in claims being litigated.

In a release, the trustee said the distribution will increase the total amount already returned to investors to about $9.1 billion of $17.5 billion in allowable claims.

The new distribution will satisfy nearly 57 percent of allowable claims, with individual checks ranging from $1,286 to $200 million, the release said.

The trustee has recovered or reached deals to recover about $10.9 billion since the fraud was revealed in December 2008 with Madoff's arrest.

Authorities said Madoff had sent investors statements telling them that their roughly $20 billion investment had grown to as much as $68 billion when the accounts actually had dwindled to just a few hundred million dollars.

The 77-year-old Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to fraud charges, admitting his Ponzi scheme lasted decades.