Investors in Bernard Madoff's fraud who currently aren't eligible to share in recoveries from the Ponzi scheme on Tuesday put forth their clearest articulation yet of why they should be.

In a small bankruptcy courtroom in downtown Manhattan packed with victims of the fraud, lawyers whose clients withdrew more from their Madoff accounts than they put in -- known as "net winners" -- argued that laws governing liquidation of brokerages meant their clients deserved to be compensated in line with other Madoff investors.