By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz filed a lawsuit against a bankruptcy trustee on the Bernie Madoff case Monday, alleging that the trustee withheld crucial evidence in a suit demanding a $1 billion settlement, the New York Post reported.
Irving Picard, the trustee charged with reimbursing Madoff's victims, filed a complaint last week alleging that the team owners owed up to $1 billion to victims because they knowingly profited from the scam and illegally withdrew their original investment, the paper reported.
Now, Wilpon and Katz argue that crucial testimony from one of their firm's hedge fund managers stating that he repeatedly told the men to trust Madoff, along with other favorable evidence, was deliberately omitted from Picard's suit, the paper reported.
Wilpon and Katz maintain that they were not aware of Madoff's $80 billion Ponzi scheme when they were investing with the financier through their fund, Sterling Equities, the Post reported.
"The complaint, which ignores that testimony, was filed in an effort to extract a huge and unwarranted settlement," David Cohen, the Mets general counsel, said in a statement to the Post.
Mets owners have been looking for a minority stake owner for the team since January, when Martin Luther King III expressed interest.
The cash-strapped team owners also refinanced their holdings last year.
