The Woodbridge Liquidation Trust is a court-supervised liquidation trust created in 2019 to wind down the aftermath of a Ponzi scheme run by Robert Shapiro through a network of over 275 affiliated entities. Shapiro raised over $1.22B from more than 10,000 investors by selling promissory notes and fund units, using new investor money to pay earlier investors rather than investing in legitimate real estate as represented. The Trust's sole purpose is to liquidate assets, pursue legal claims against third parties who facilitated the fraud, and distribute net proceeds to victim investors. Cash has come from real estate sales (the Trust inherited roughly $585M of real estate at inception), litigation settlements, SEC Fair Fund recoveries, and DOJ-forfeited assets. The Trust has made eleven distributions totaling approximately $426M to victims since inception, following a prescribed waterfall priority. The Trust is now in the final stages of wind-down, with virtually all real estate sold and most legal claims resolved. The primary remaining issue is a construction defect claim on a single-family home sold for roughly $60M, where the buyer has alleged soils-related and water damage; the Trust has accrued $9.1M in related costs but total exposure is unknown. Distributions to victims have been suspended since August 2023 pending resolution of this claim. The Trust targets completion of all activities by February 2027, though extensions are possible.
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