Southern District Bankruptcy Judge Burton R. Lifland in Manhattan has ordered Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee in the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities bankruptcy, to unseal identifying information in his complaints against JPMorgan, Citi, and others, rejecting arguments that doing so would amount to defamation. “At bottom, the Defendants have not adequately established any harm beyond merely ‘embarrassing or prejudicial’ association with these Ponzi scheme proceedings, which is not sufficient cause for sealing,” Judge Lifland concluded. (Read the Order)
But not everything in the trustee’s complaints will be made public. JPMorgan had sought to keep redactions regarding its know-your-customer and anti-money laundering procedures under wraps. Judge Lifland sided with the bank’s lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, ruling that information about those programs is proprietary and that its disclosure could “result in unintended adverse consequences for the public at large.”
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