The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that a firm hired by the United States to distribute $4-billion to victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme has racked up $38.8-million in billings over four years (all figures U.S.). A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that meanwhile, investors are still waiting for their first cheques. The Justice Department disclosed its payments to Richard Breeden, the Madoff Victim Fund administrator, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Mr. Breeden's fees, which are being paid from cash in the fund, cover his work through 2016. The delay highlights how 8-1/2 years after Mr. Madoff's arrest investors are still scrambling to recover money from a U.S. fund which was announced with great fanfare. Victims have recovered billions of dollars from another fund, but they have yet to be made whole. "It's very frustrating that people are making money off us like this, using money that was recovered for victims," said Daphne Brogdon, whose family lost about $5-million in the Madoff scam. "They're eating away at whatever percentage we could possibly get." Mr. Breeden wrote on the fund's website that the initial distribution will take place "sometime in 2017."