It's the Mets' turn at bat.
The owners of New York's National League baseball franchise slammed Irving Picard in a lawsuit yesterday, alleging that the bankruptcy trustee tasked with clawing back money for Bernie Madoff victims fabricated evidence to force a billion-dollar settlement.
The 107-page complaint brought by Mets' co-owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz and their investment fund, Sterling Equities, alleges Picard knowingly made "false allegations" in a bid to force a settlement.
Wilpon and Katz hope to show that they weren't privy to any special information about Madoff and were never aware he was an epic scam artist.
Wilpon's countersuit comes two days after Picard slapped the team with an amended suit demanding that the Mets fork over $1 billion to settle claims they not only profited from Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, but also fraudulently withdrew the principal they'd originally invested.
The Mets' complaint attempts to show that Picard intentionally omitted evidence that would have been "overwhelmingly favorable to the Sterling Partners that are directly contrary to the evidence available before the complaint [by the trustee] was filed."
According to the suit, Peter Stamos, an outside hedge fund manager for Sterling, testified that he offered up a ringing endorsement of Madoff rather than sounding "repeated" warnings to Katz, as Picard's suit charges.
"I said to Mr. Katz on a number of occasions that my assumption is that Mr. Madoff is the most honest and honorable man, among the most honest and honorable men that we will ever meet," Stamos said, according to the suit.
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