US Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan has approved a settlement in which the widow of a longtime investor with convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff will return $7.2 billion to the victims of Madoff's fraud, according to press reports.

The settlement by Barbara Picower, the widow of Jeffry Picower, brings to nearly $10 billion the amount that Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for Madoff's firm, has recovered for people cheated in the scheme, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Picower died in October. A group of Madoff investors had objected to the settlement, arguing in part that it shielded Picower’s estate from additional lawsuits.

At the time of the settlement, his wife said in a statement that she was "absolutely confident" that her husband was not involved in Madoff's fraud.

Picower began investing with Madoff in the 1970s, according to prosecutors.