Democrat Rep. Paul Kanjorski criticized the way claims are being paid to the victims of the Madoff and Stanford Ponzi schemes, according to the Wall Street Journal. He has vowed to pursue changes at the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

"Investor trust, for which SIPA was designed to preserve, has been seriously eroded by SIPC's narrow interpretations of its statutory mandate," Kanjorski, who heads the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, was quoted as saying at a hearing yesterday.

Kanjorski said he would pursue changes that would require the SIPC to fulfill claims of customers based on the account statements they received from failed broker-dealers. He said he would also explore whether SIPC coverage should apply to investment advisers as well as broker-dealers, the news service reports.

Rep. Scott Garrett , meanwhile, said he was concerned about the plans of Madoff trustee Irving Picard to clawback funds from people who withdrew fraudulent profits from the Ponzi scheme.

In his testimony SIPC Chairman Orlan Johnson defended the method being used by Picard, saying it wouldn't be right to pay claims based on account statements containing phony trading profits.