A judge approved the payment Thursday in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan. It follows initial payouts of over $15 million in July.

Lawyers at the Baker & Hostetler firm say they're following a paper trail that spans the globe while laboring to process over 16,000 claims seeking to recover billions in losses.

Trustee Irving Picard reported last month that he so far recovered about $1.2 billion and sued hedge funds and other large investors for another $14.8 billion.

The 71-year-old Madoff was sentenced earlier this year to 150 years in prison for orchestrating an epic Ponzi scheme that wiped out life savings and entire charities.