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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USCIS Will Begin Accepting CW-1 Petitions for Fiscal Year 2019
On April 2, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting petitions under the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) program subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2019 cap. Employers in the CNMI use the CW-1 program to employ foreign workers who are ineligible for other nonimmigrant worker categories. The cap for CW-1 visas for FY 2019 is 4,999.
For the FY 2019 cap, USCIS encourages employers to file a petition for a CW-1 nonimmigrant worker up to six months in advance of the proposed start date of employment and as early as possible within that timeframe. USCIS will reject a petition if it is filed more than six months in advance. An extension petition may request a start date of Oct. 1, 2018, even if that worker’s current status will not expire by that date.
Since USCIS expects to receive more petitions than the number of CW-1 visas available for FY 2019, USCIS may conduct a lottery to randomly select petitions and associated beneficiaries so that the cap is not exceeded. The lottery would give employers the fairest opportunity to request workers, particularly with the possibility of mail delays from the CNMI.
USCIS will count the total number of beneficiaries in the petitions received after 10 business days to determine if a lottery is needed. If the cap is met after those initial 10 days, a lottery may still need to be conducted with only the petitions received on the last day before the cap was met. USCIS will announce when the cap is met and whether a lottery has been conducted.