David Cohen, general counsel for the Mets, called the new allegations "more nonsense from the trustee." He said the $54 million, representing funds the Sterling partners had invested with Madoff, was never used. He said the money was returned after one day because the funds necessary to complete the deal were received from Sterling’s lenders by the buyout deadline.

A bridge loan is a short-term loan, typically payable no shorter than two weeks and no longer than a year or two. It’s designed to provide funding while other, expected funding is pending, but not yet closed. Wikipedia says that they typically cost about 12% in interest, but let’s say it’s 10% annually. Easier math etc.

Cohen claims that it’s not a bridge loan (“nonsense”) because it was paid back after a day. I don’t know much about bridge loans, but honestly, I don’t get why that would matter. You close on the bridge loan in order to have the money you need "in case of a delay in getting long term financing and/or investment; in this case, the delay was overstated. But the Mets still sought and received a loan. The fact that it was never used was immaterial, also, as it clearly could have been.

So assuming that it was a loan, at 10% annually, the Mets had $54 million for a day and owe the Madoffs about $15,000. Honestly? Waiving that fee is no big deal. You could very easily see Bernie properly saying “don’t worry about it, just get me an extra suite this summer.”

Attorney Cohen is bad at PR though and comes off sounding like an idiot.