Like other confidants within Madoff's close circle, Stanley Chais was on the receiving end of a lawsuit by the Madoff Securities trustee Irving Picard in 2009 following Madoff's guilty plea. Chais had been operating a number of feeder funds into BLMIS, namely the Brighton Group. According to Picard, there was no scenario in which Chais would not have known he was deeply in bed with a Ponzi scheme as he was both a primary beneficiary and had withdrawn over a billion dollars for both he and his family. During the case Picard v. Chais, Chais claimed to be broke and was eventually forced to sell his New York apartment. This did not deter further injunctions as the SEC moved to file civil charges in June of 2009. In September of 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown also filed a suit against Mr. Chais seeking $25 million in penalties. Chais would reach a settlement with Picard in 2016 for $277 million, all of which was allocated to BLMIS Customer Fund. Settlements for the prior charges would not be reached as Stanley Chais died from an anemic blood disorder in 2010.
