The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition the trustee recouping money for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme is seeking court approval to release $1.25-billion from legal reserves, potentially boosting the total payout to $8.22-billion (all figures U.S.). A Reuters dispatch to the Post quotes trustee Irving Picard as saying the request was made possible after a Federal Appeals Court in New York ruled on Feb. 20 that victims were not entitled to "time-based" inflation or interest adjustments on their claims. Nearly three-quarters of the released reserves would be made available for immediate distribution to victims. The latest payout would be the second largest of six since Mr. Madoff's fraud was uncovered in December, 2008. David Sheehan, a lawyer for Mr. Picard, said the process might be delayed if claimants in the time-based case make a mid-May deadline to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Reuters notes that if the motion is approved at a May 28 hearing, payouts would go to fraud victims who had 1,077 accounts with Mr. Madoff's investment firm. Payouts would average $855,232. The trustee has recouped $10.57-billion of the $17.5-billion of principal he estimates that Madoff victims lost.