Days after Bernard Madoff confessed to the biggest Ponzi scheme in Wall Street history, a judge hired a trustee to sift through the con man’s books and see how much money he could salvage for victims of the fraud.

NEW YORK – Investors who profited from Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme even though they knew nothing of it must still pay back their profits, an appeals court decided Thursday. Thousands of investors lost billions of dollars through his multi-decade fraud. A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit concluded, however, that the investors were not entitled to “fictitious” profits that actually was money belonging to other customers. Picard has reported recovering over $14.3 billion for investors who lost over $17.5 billion that they invested. The collapse of the Ponzi scheme left many investors severely damaged financially because they were told their investments had grown much larger than what they started with.

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court is leaving in place a ruling that allows the trustee recovering money for investors in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme to pursue more than $4 billion that went to overseas investors. The high court on Monday declined to get involved in the case. An appeals court said the trustee, Irving Picard, could go after money that went through foreign investment funds back to foreign investors. Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The court-appointed trustee has recovered approximately $14 billion of about $18 billion that investors put into Madoffs business.