Madoff’s UK directors sued for $80m
THE legal battle over the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s $50bn (£31bn) Ponzi scheme moved to London last night when liquidators of the fraudster’s empire named all the directors of the London subsidiary in a new lawsuit.
The complaint against Madoff’s London branch – Madoff Securities International Ltd (MSIL), seeks $80m and names as defendants former MSIL directors: Madoff’s brother Peter, Madoff’s sons Mark and Andrew, Stephen Raven, Leon Flax, Christopher Dale, Philip Toop and Malcolm Stevenson. Raven was lead director. The suit alleges that MSIL was established to conceal lack of actual trading by Madoff’s business.
Meanwhile, trustees seeking to recoup money from Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme have upped their claim against UBS to $2.5bn. In court papers, trustee Irving Picard claimed the Swiss bank “capitalised on the Ponzi scheme in the face of clear indications of fraud”.
UBS denies any wrongdoing, saying it will “take all appropriate steps to demonstrate that the allegations are false and unfounded”.