A group funded by the securities industry has set aside $231 million to cover claims by Bernard Madoff’s burned investors.

The announcement was made Wednesday by court appointed trustee Irving H. Picard and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

The court has allowed 543 claims, totaling $2.972 billion, submitted by investors of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in March to charges that his secretive investment advisory business was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out thousands of investors and ruined charities.

Up to 10 of his associates may soon have their turns before a court of law, having to explain how tens of billions of investor’s dollars simply disappeared, and what their involvement may have been.

The AP quotes unnamed sources within the government investigation of Madoff’s investment company as saying ten people associated with Madoff will be charged.

(Source: WCBSTV)