TIL over 80% of the losses by Bernie Madoff's victims were recovered.

MVF’s Assets and Reserves Used for D6

The chart below shows the current allocation of MVF’s cash following D6.

Unobligated Funds . At the end of D5, MVF paid or reserved all its funds except for $26.5 million that remained free for immediate distribution. Since D5, new collateral recoveries, release of HVs, release of HV and other reserves and other actions added approximately $470 million to unobligated funds. MVF then used all but the $8.3 million of unobligated funds you see in the chart above for payments to victims in D6.

Payment Reserves . MVF is currently holding reserves of $223.6 million for claims or requests for reconsideration (RFRs) that may be approved in the future. This is down a bit less than half from the $418.7 million in payment reserves at the time of D5. This entire reduction in reserves was either paid as catch-up payments on newly approved claims, or released for payment to all other victims.

Earmark Reserves . As shown in the graphic below, at the end of D4, MVF held earmark reserves of $1.091 billion to be used to pay up to 12,007 petitioners who invested through 21 held vehicles (“HVs”), as well as a small number of individual holds for other reasons. Before D5, however, seven HVs completed their own distributions, and MVF was able to determine the collateral recoveries of 3,761 petitioners who invested through them. As a result, almost $210 million in payouts occurred when MVF released holds on these HVs. Thus, MVF was able to release approximately 31% of individual holds prior to D5.

When announcing D5, MVF’s April 2020 website update (April 2020 update) addressed the situation of the remaining 14 HVs by saying:

“DOJ cannot delay completion of its own process without hurting other victims. To ensure fair and timely recovery for approved victims with complete claims, DOJ retains discretion to reallocate the earmark reserves further. Therefore, finalizing distribution of collateral recoveries should be a priority for anyone involved with the held vehicles” (emphasis added).

In the time between when that notice was published and D6, another seven HVs made distributions to their investors so that MVF could calculate their collateral recoveries. Consequently, MVF released holds on these seven HVs and 3,723 additional victims and will make payouts to these investors-petitioners of almost $260 million in D6. Thus, as of D6 the original 21 HVs have been reduced to only seven. These seven HVs have 4,523 victims (out of the original 12,007 petitioners). With the significant decline in HVs, the amount of earmark reserves also has fallen sharply. While MVF held $1.091 billion in total earmark reserves at the end of D4, after D6 that number now stands at $624 million, of which roughly $520 million is allocated against petitioners in the remaining HVs.