Madoff victims’ trustee chases banks

09/12/10 18:10 CET

economy

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The court-appointed trustee for victims of convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff has launched an attempt to get hundreds of millions of euros from seven international financial institutions.

Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence for a worldwide fraud involving around 50 billion euros.

The complaints have been filed against Fortis , Citibank, ABN AMRO, Natixis, BBVA, Nomura and Merrill Lynch, now owned by Bank of America.

Citi, Natixis and ABN AMRO deny the allegations against them. The others have not commented.

The trustee has accused the financial institutions of receiving transfers of money from Madoff’s investment company when they either knew or should have known of the fraud.

He says the banks “enabled” Madoff’s scheme by giving credit to various of his feeder funds and creating and offering derivative investment products linked to them.

So far, the trustee and his team of lawyers have recovered around two billion euros.

More about: Banking, Bernard Madoff, Finance

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