The Broke and the Beautiful: Heavy Hitters Edition

This week on The Broke and the Beautiful, a judge approved a settlement between the owners of the New York Mets and the trustee recovering money for Bernard Madoff’s fraud victims, and ex-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is facing a grand-jury investigation. Also, former football great Jamal Lewis has hiked himself to bankruptcy court.

It’s safe! Playing umpire between the owners of the New York Mets and Madoff trustee Irving Picard, a judge has formally approved a settlement deal. According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff approved the $162 million settlement, which was struck in March, after failing to get any objections or written complaints. The deal stipulates that Mets owners and Madoff investors Saul Katz and Fred Wilpon— whom Picard alleged were “willfully blind” to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme—won’t pay anything for four years. But what was Rakoff’s only real decision? Whether approval was “worth giving up having Sandy Koufax [a possible witness at a trial] in his courtroom,” the judge said.

You may have thought the Dodgers saga was over, but ex-owner Frank McCourt is still in play…for a grand jury, that is. According to the Los Angeles Times, a federal grand jury is probing possible criminal financial misconduct by McCourt and his ex-wife, Jamie, while they owned the team. Officials want documentation from each of the McCourts, whose messy divorce battle coupled with the team’s bankruptcy revealed how certain team money was allegedly used as the McCourts’ personal spending money. Major League Baseball claims McCourt “looted” $189 million from the team to use for himself. McCourt’s attorneys struck out the idea.

Former football player Jamal Lewis has fumbled into bankruptcy, the Baltimore Sun reported. Court documents show that Lewis, who was a running back for the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns, owes $800,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and has $70,000 in credit-card debt to American Express. Lewis also has millions of dollars in mortgage liens. Among his assets are “1 fur,” a Super Bowl ring, a 2008 Mercedes GL 550, a 47-foot powerboat and several houses in Atlanta. Lewis’s bankruptcy trustee has sought to dismiss the case or convert it to Chapter 7 liquidation because Lewis didn’t provide the proper paperwork (remind you of anyone?) and because he and his lawyer didn’t report for a hearing. A judge will consider the motion at a hearing June 5 in Atlanta.

Danny Tarkanian, a real estate and small-business owner who’s also a Republican congressional candidate in Nevada, can’t gallop away from a $17 million judgment. According to Las Vegas Sun, a judge ruled that Tarkanian, along with his parents and siblings, must pay the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for a loan they got from a failed bank that’s under receivership. The loan was to be used for Dignitary Downs, a California-based “equestrian destination resort” that happens to have ties to land once owned by former Dodgers star Don Drysdale. Tarkanian’s plan backfired after the developer ran out of money, causing the project temporarily to reverse its gait.

Idaho state Rep. Phil Hart, a tax protestor who recently lost a bid in the GOP primary, has gained a new constituent: the Idaho bankruptcy court. Court documents show (h/t Spokesman-Review) that Hart, who reported less than $50,000 in assets in his Chapter 13 petition, owes between $500,000 and $1 million to three creditors: the Internal Revenue Service, the Idaho State Tax commission and a Sacramento law firm. Specifics haven’t yet been reported. Hart also faces a $500,000 lawsuit from the Department of Justice, which is looking to foreclose on his house. The foreclosure proceeding has been halted because of Hart’s bankruptcy filing but is scheduled to go to trial in November.