A judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the New York Mets' owners on Monday, and a trial will be held on March 19. The judge said the Mets' owners owe $83 million and could be liable for hundreds of millions more.
Sterling Equities -- which also controls the Mets -- is being sued under the premise that the Mets' owners saw warnings of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, but chose to look the other way because the scheme fed their wealth.
If a jury finds that the Mets' owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, ignored blaring caution signals so they could continue to reap the benefits of Madoff's scheme, Wilpon and Katz could be ordered to pay up to $300 million.
Even while refusing to dismiss the lawsuit, the presiding judge, Jed S. Rakoff, said he was "skeptical" the trustee, Irving H. Picard, could prove that the Mets' owners knowingly ignored signs of Madoff's scheme.