Well, THIS is awkward: A top lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission is being sued by Bernie Madoff victims trustee Irving Picard in part of his “clawback” lawsuit to recompense those who lost out in the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. The lawyer, SEC general counsel David Becker, didn’t invest with Madoff himself — his mother did, and her estate earned a reported $1.54 million from Madoff’s fake funds. She died in 2004, and Becker and his brothers became co-executors of the estate. “He was not involved in his parents’ financial affairs, and has no recollections of his parents’ investment with Madoff prior to his mother’s death and the subsequent liquidation of the account,” SEC spokesman John Nester told the News. And don’t cry for Becker — he was already set to return at the end of the month to the private sector. As a former partner at Cleary Gottleib for seven years, that $1.54 million shouldn’t be too painful to make up. Meanwhile, this could be good news for Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz. If an SEC lawyer could make money off of Madoff without suspecting any wrongdoing, why couldn’t they?
Irving Picard hits Securities and Exchange Commission’s top lawyer with Bernie Madoff lawsuit [NYDN]
