    In a 25-page opinion, Judge Lifland acknowledged that any
method for calculating how much investors should be repaid is
fraught with challenge given the “complex and unique facts” of
the Ponzi scheme and that any calculation method risks
benefiting some victims of Mr. Madoff’s fraud at others’
expense.  “In this zero-sum game where funds are limited, hard
choices must be made,” the judge said, according to a transcript
from Tuesday’s hearing.  The ruling is a victory for Irving
Picard, the trustee leading the effort to recover investors’
stolen funds. He had argued that allowing interest or inflation
wasn’t legal and represented a “poorly disguised” effort by some
investors to boost their payout at the expense of others.  Mr.
Picard and his team “look forward to this matter reaching a
final, unappealable order from the court. When that occurs, we
will seek to distribute, at the earliest possible opportunity,
the funds then available to defrauded [Madoff] customers with
allowed claims,” Amanda Remus, a spo