Mario Cuomo to mediate Mets-Madoff dispute

NEW YORK, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A judge Thursday appointed former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo to mediate the dispute between the New York Mets and the trustees of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

The order from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton R. Lifland said Cuomo is to sort out the "special issues presented in the adversary proceeding that suggests referral to an appropriately experienced mediator," the New York Daily News reported.

Irving Picard, the trustee attempting to recover money lost to Madoff's multibillion-dollar scam, sued the team in December, saying owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz knowingly made hundreds of millions of dollars in "fictitious profits," the newspaper said.

Attorneys for Wilpon and Katz dispute their clients "knew or should have known" of their involvement in the scam, blaming regulators for failing to catch the fraud for decades.