* Three lawsuits filed

* Brother, two sons, niece accused of wrongdoing

* "Lavish lifestyles" alleged

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The trustee liquidating
Bernard Madoff's investment firm late Thursday filed three
lawsuits against entities affiliated with family members of the
imprisoned swindler, accusing them of taking nearly $200
million of investor cash to fund "lavish lifestyles."

The lawsuits filed in the U.S. bankruptcy court in
Manhattan collectively seek to recover more than $30 million,
and are the latest effort by the trustee Irving Picard to
recoup assets to be distributed to victims of Madoff's
estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

One of the cases was filed against a family fund, another
against a business that owned oil and gas properties, and a
third was against a trading-related business.

In the complaint against the family fund, Picard accused
Madoff's brother Peter, sons Andrew and Mark, and niece Shana
of failing to perform their senior management duties at Bernard
L Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the center of the
patriarch's fraud.

"While acting in complete dereliction of their management
responsibilities to BLMIS, Peter, Andrew, Mark and Shana were
also among the unlawful recipients of close to $200 million of
BLMIS customer funds which they used to fund lavish
lifestyles," lawyers for Picard alleged in one of the
lawsuits.

Bernard Madoff, 72, pleaded guilty in March 2009 to running
a decades-long Ponzi scheme. He is serving a 150-year sentence
in a North Carolina federal prison.

Martin Flumenbaum, a lawyer for Mark and Andrew Madoff,
said: "With respect to Mark and Andrew, the lawsuits are
without merit, both factually and legally."

Lawyers for Peter and Shana Madoff did not immediately
return requests for comment.

Picard has said that through March 31, he had recovered
more than $1.5 billion of assets for Madoff victims.

The cases, all filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern
District of New York, are Picard v. Madoff Technologies LLC,
No. 10-03483; Picard v. Madoff Energy Holdings LLC et al, No.
10-03484; and Picard v. Madoff Family LLC, No. 10-03485.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional
reporting by Michael Erman; editing by Carol Bishopric)