Jury to decide Mets owners" Madoff links Owners of the New York Mets baseball team need to convince a jury they had no inkling that Bernard Madoff's investment fund was a fraud or be on the hook for $303m in a court case that could impact the financially strained franchise. The trial, which starts on Monday, is the first courtroom test for Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee who is trying to recover money for Madoff investors. Mr Picard has collected $9bn of the estimated $17.3bn fraud, but much of it is tied up in litigation. Recent court rulings have reduced other potential recoveries. In a previous court ruling Judge Jed Rakoff said the team owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, will have to pay as much as $83m to the trustee. The Mets, under financial straits, are trying to save the franchise. The team lost $70m last year and is saddled with debt. To raise cash the Mets have sold ownership stakes and cut their payroll for the 2012 season by letting go of several star players. A jury of nine New Yorkers will decide whether the Mets owners were "wilfully blind" to the fraud. If they find fault, Judge Rakoff will decide how much the team owes. The trial is expected to last 10 days and should conclude before the Mets" opening day on April 5. In a twist, instead of requiring the trustee to prove that the Mets owners ignored red flags, Judge Rakoff shifted the burden to the Mets owners. In a previous ruling, the judge expressed scepticism over the trustee's ability to win. The trustee said he plans to call 18 witnesses, including Mr Katz and several top executives from investment properties operated under the Sterling name. The trustee is also opposing some defence witnesses, including Robert Morgenthau, the long-serving local district attorney for Manhattan, and Sandy Koufax, the Hall of Fame pitcher, on the basis they are intended "to curry favour with the jury." Defence witnesses have said in depositions that Mr Katz and Mr Wilpon played no role in investment decisions. Their names were used in marketing materials to "use the cachet of the New York Mets and the ability to have access to the owners" box and to throw out the first pitch or to have a charitable event at Shea Stadium as an incentive for hedge-fund managers to consider us," said Peter Stamos, one of the owners of Sterling Stamos, an investment fund partly owned by Mr Katz.