Claims Status — Madoff Recovery Initiative (Public page of the trustee for the SIPA liquidation).

Claims Supported by This Source

1. As of August 21, 2026, there were 16,521 determined claims: 2,659 allowed, 2,693 denied, 10,734 denied for claimants with no accounts, 420 withdrawn, 12 determined with no claim filed, and 3 claims in litigation deemed determined. The total value of allowed claims is $20.315 billion.
2. On December 23, 2008, the Bankruptcy Court issued a claims procedure order, stipulating that BLMIS customers would receive pro rata shares of customer property based on their net equity. The final deadline for claims under SIPA and this order was July 2, 2009. The Trustee published notices in major newspapers and mailed thousands of claim forms.
3. The Trustee calculated net equity as the actual amount deposited less the amount withdrawn (Net Investment/Cash In-Cash Out method), rejecting the Last Statement method (based on the final statement balance in November 2008) because the statements were fictitious. The SIPC and SEC submitted opinions supporting the Trustee. After a hearing on February 2, 2010, the Bankruptcy Court approved the Trustee's method on March 1, 2010 (Judge Lifland: "every dollar paid to reimburse a fictitious profit is a dollar that is not available to satisfy claims for money actually invested"). An implementation order was issued on March 8.
4. All good-faith BLMIS customers are victims of the fraud, and even if their claims against the customer fund are denied, they hold claims as general creditors against the general estate. The priority is: customer net equity claims → the subrogated SIPC → the general estate → general creditors.
5. SIPC's committed advances (up to $500,000 per allowed claim) total approximately $850.9 million. Of this, $272.4 million for fully satisfied accounts has been reimbursed, leaving $578.5 million unreimbursed. The Trustee and SIPC, anticipating that the general estate cannot cover administrative costs, will pay court-approved compensation and expenses from the SIPC advances.
6. The Trustee submits interim reports on the status of claims to the court every six months, and the number of claims is updated weekly on the page. Claimants who object to a determination on their claim may request a hearing before the Bankruptcy Court within 30 days.

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