When steven simkin divorced laura blank, they agreed to split their assets equally, without specifically mentioning any stock accounts. they owned an account with bernard l. madoff investment securities estimated to be worth $5.4 million. simkin kept the account and paid blank more than $6.5 million, including $2.7 million to offset the amount that they believed were in the account. two years after the divorce agreement was signed, simkin learned that the account actually contained no funds due to its manager’s fraud.