Investors Take Madoff to Bankruptcy Court
Ethics
A small group of investors took Bernard Madoff to bankruptcy court onMonday, saying the disgraced financier bilked them out of nearly $64million.
A Manhattan judge cleared the way for the newly filed Chapter 7petition last week by granting a request from the same investors tolift a temporary order barring bankruptcy for Madoff. They had arguedthat a bankruptcy case was needed to protect their rights amid anongoing scramble to seize his assets.
Madoff,70, pleaded guilty last month to federal charges his secretiveinvestment advisory service actually was a multibillion Ponzi scheme inwhich he paid longtime clients with money from new ones. He is jailed,awaiting a June sentencing for charges that carry a sentence of up to150 years in prison.
Federal authorities already have begunforcing Madoff to forfeit property they allege was paid for by hisfraud. In addition, a court-appointed trustee is liquidating assetsfrom his securities firm to help play claims from thousands of burnedinvestors.
The investors who sought bankruptcy believe it was thebest way to make sure "all the property available would go to thevictims," their lawyer, Jonathan Landers, said Monday.
Theyinclude a general partnership in Florida that claims it lost $30.2million and another Madoff client who says he lost about $29 million inpersonal and charitable trust accounts. The claims are based on amountslisted in the last statements they received from Madoff — documentsinvestigators say were fictitious.
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Does a car or truck accident count as a work injury?
If an employee is injured in a car crash while on the job, they are eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits. “On the job” injuries are not limited to accidents and injuries that happen inside the workplace, they may also include injuries suffered away from an employee’s place of work while performing a job-related task, such as making a delivery or traveling to a client meeting.
Regular commutes to and from work don’t usually count. If you get into an accident on your way in on a regular workday, it’s probably not considered a work injury for the purposes of workers’ compensation.
If you drive around as part of your job, an injury on the road or loading/unloading accident is likely a work injury. If you don’t typically drive around for work but are required to drive for the benefit of your employer, that would be a work injury in many cases.
If you are out of town for work, pretty much any driving would count as work related. For traveling employees, any accidents or injuries that happen on a work trip, even while not technically working, can be considered a work injury. The reason is because you wouldn’t be in that town in the first place, had you not been on a work trip.
Workers’ compensation claims for truck drivers, traveling employees and work-related injuries that occur away from the job site can be challenging and complex. At Krol, Bongiorno & Given, we understand that many families depend on the income of an injured worker, and we are proud of our record protecting the injured and disabled. We have handled well over 30,000 claims for injured workers throughout the state of Illinois.