The US Supreme Court denied certiorari in HSBC Holdings v. Irving H. Picard on Monday, a case concerning whether the liquidation trustee of Bernie Madoff’s estate can seize overseas funds.

Madoff was convicted in 2009 of defrauding investors through a Ponzi scheme.

Last year the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit allowed the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC liquidation trustee, Irving Picard, to collect assets that had been transferred overseas from Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The Second Circuit overruled the original decision of US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who held that once the assets left the US, they were unobtainable according to the US Bankruptcy Code.

In December the Supreme Court asked US Solicitor General to submit an amicus brief to provide the Department of Justice’s opinion on the matter. The brief urged the Supreme Court to deny certiorari.

It took eight years from the time Madoff was convicted for the DOJ to begin providing restitution to Madoff’s victims, at which time Picard argued that victims could not be made whole without seizing the overseas assets.