Call it life imitating "must-see TV."
A man victimized by Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme is asking a court to rewrite his divorce decree to adjust the amount given to his wife.
According to The New York Times,attorney Steve Simkin is attempting to use the Bernard Madoff fraud case to renegotiate his divorce contract, which was signed in 2006.
It is an unusual case in that divorce papers approved by the courts are almost always considered final, as a way, in part, to allow both parties closure and allow them to move on with their lives.
The Timesreports Simkin, an attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, wants the courts to allow him to negotiate a new divorce agreement, not just because he lost a small fortune in the Madoff Ponzi scheme, but he and his wife both invested in Madoff (left) when they were married and there is a long legal precedent for nullifying a contract if both parties made what the courts call a "mutual mistake."
Simkin's ex-wife, Laura Blank, and her legal team argue Simkin chose to invest in Madoff and, as fate would have it, lost money that has nothing to do with her.