from Bloomberg:

Madoff Judge Approves Trustee’s First Payments to Customers Since Arrest

The first payments to customers of con man Bernard Madoff out of funds collected by a trustee for his firm won approval from a bankruptcy judge, more than 2 1/2 years after the Ponzi scheme collapsed.

Trustee Irving Picard said in May he would initially pay $272 million to customers with approved claims, out of a $2.6 billion fund set up for Madoff investors. Yesterday’s order approving the payouts was issued by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan.