Trustee: Nearly 9,000 claims in Madoff scam

A court-appointed trustee unraveling Bernard Madoff's massive fraud signaled Thursday that he may go after the disgraced financier's family to pay victim claims, which have grown to almost 9,000. Legal action against the family "is a matter that's being looked into," trustee Irving Picard said during a telephone conference call with reporters. Picard already has filed lawsuits in bankruptcy court in Manhattan to try to force hedge funds and other large investors to return $10.1 billion in fictitious profits paid by Madoff's firm, alleging they should have known about the fraud. As of Wednesday, there were 8,848 customers claiming losses, he said. "I have a duty to investigate and to go to court to recover from persons and entities who received more than their share," he said. "In actual fact, persons who are subject to these recovery efforts actually received money stolen from others."