Madoff trustee to drop UBS suit

NEW YORK, July 21 (UPI) -- Irving Piccard, the court-appointed trustee in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme case, said he would drop damages claims against Swiss bank UBS.

The decision may signal the beginning of the end of Piccard's pursuit of common law claims against a number of Madoff associates and banks that fed business to him, The New York Post reported Thursday.

Piccard was seeking to retrieve $2.6 billion from UBS on claims that the bank should have known, based on the extraordinary figures, that New York businessman Bernard Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme.

Piccard told a federal judge he would drop damage claims against the bank, which sets up the possibility he will drop claims against HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, UniCredit, Citigroup and owners of the New York Mets baseball team, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz.

At stake is about $80 billion Piccard intended to retrieve from various Madoff associates.

A spokeswoman for Piccard Amanda Remus said in a statement, "The trustee's decision to eliminate two of the common law causes of action in the complaint involving (UBS) has no impact either on the strength of our case or on the amounts of recoveries and damages that the trustee's actions will seek for ultimate distribution."

But Douglas Furth, a partner at Golenbock Eiseman said Piccard was "beating a strategic retreat."

Piccard has been advised that the claims he has filed would not hold up in bankruptcy court, the newspaper said.