"The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernie Madoff's estate has asked a federal judge to order the owners of the Mets to turn over more than $83 million in allegedly fictitious profits they withdrew from their accounts in the two years before Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme collapsed.

In a motion for partial summary judgment filed late Thursday, the lawyers representing trustee Irving Picard — whose original claim demanded $1 billion from the Mets' owners — said records show that Fred Wilpon, Saul Katz and their associates withdrew $83,309,162 in fictitious profits from 34 accounts between Dec. 11, 2006, and Dec. 11, 2008, when Madoff's scam collapsed.

Attorneys for the Mets also filed a summary judgment motion Thursday asking U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff to dismiss the entire case, saying Picard has not found any evidence showing Wilpon and Katz knew that Madoff was running a massive Ponzi scheme or turned a blind eye to his fraud. Picard's legal team is expected to respond to that filing by Feb. 9.

In his filing, Picard said the transfers between 2006 and 2008 were a key component of Madoff's scheme. If Madoff had failed to honor requests for withdrawals, attorney David J. Sheehan argued in the motion, he would have triggered suspicions that would have led to an investigation.

"The transfers to the Sterling defendants, like the payments made to customers in any Ponzi scheme, were an integral and essential part of (Madoff's) fraudulent scheme," Sheehan wrote."