Madoff scandal could cost Uncle Sam up to $17B (AP)

(Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Friday accepted appeals by law firms that once represented convicted swindler Allen Stanford and were trying to avoid lawsuits by victims seeking to recoup losses from his $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

Investigators claim Bernard Madoff told them that he stole $50 billion, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the number may be as fictitious as the sprawling fraud that he allegedly ran.

The Bernard Madoff scandal will certainly end up as the most expensive Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, but the $50 billion price tag claimed by the disgraced financier may end up as fictitious as the returns that he had promised investors.

It sounds like an e-mail scam, but this one is actually true. The Internal Revenue Service has hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed 2009 tax refunds, and you may be eligible for the money. You better act fast: This offer expires on April 15. The IRS said Thursday that it may have refunds totaling around $917 million waiting for approximately 984,400 taxpayers who didn't file a federal tax return in 2009.

Amid the wreckage and recriminations resulting from Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme , investors are left wondering what might warn them of the next mega-fraud.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Even Uncle Sam may get burned by Bernard Madoff....

Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme made victims of magnate Mortimer Zuckerman and the foundation of Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel. Banks including Spain's Grupo Santander and France's BNP Paribas said their clients and shareholders face billions of euros of losses from the scandal.