New York — The trustee unwinding Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme reached a $32m settlement with Cohmad Securities, a now defunct brokerage that once shared a Manhattan office building with the conman and whose principals were among his earliest investors. The deal includes the estate of founder Maurice "Sonny" Cohn and his widow and daughter, who both had roles at the firm. The settlement represents more than 100% of the Cohn family’s personal withdrawals from Madoff’s investment advisory business in the six years before it collapsed, trustee Irving Picard has said. Cohn and Madoff founded Cohmad. About 20% of Madoff’s victims were referred to him by Cohn, the trustee said. Cohn died in May 2015. "We negotiated and reached this agreement despite the fact that Cohmad has been insolvent and nonoperational, and a key principal, Sonny Cohn, is now deceased," Kathryn Zunno, one of Picard’s lead attorneys on the case, said. A hearing to approve the settlement is scheduled for November 30 in...
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