Federal prosecutors and the trustee charged with recovering assets in the Bernard L. Madoff bankruptcy, announced a settlement Friday that would add $7.2 billion to the cash available to compensate victims of Mr. Madoff's global Ponzi scheme.

Details of the agreement with the estate of Jeffry M. Picower, a Palm Beach philanthropist who died in October 2009, were released Friday at a news conference in Lower Manhattan.

The settlement “will return every penny received from almost 35 years of investing with Bernard Madoff,” Mr. Picower's wife, Barbara, said in a statement through her lawyer, William D. Zabel of Schulte Roth & Zabel.

The $7.2 billion will greatly expand the $2.3 billion sum that the trustee, Irving H. Picard, had already collected through asset sales and other settlements in the Madoff bankruptcy. The amount represents the difference between the cash that Mr. Picower put into his Madoff account and the amount that he withdrew over the life of the fraud, according to litigation filed last year by Mr. Picard.

Read the complete New York Times story, “$7.2 Billion Settlement Reached With Madoff Investor.”