Madoff trustee launches $9 billion suit against HSBC
6 December 2010
The liquidator of Bernard Madoff's failed
investment empire is demanding enormous sums from yet more leading
banks, alleging they co-operated in the fraud.
This week's main target of Madoff bankruptcy
trustee Irving Picard is UK-owned bank HSBC. Along with twelve
feeder funds based in Europe, the Caribbean and Central America,
HSBC is being sued for $9 billion of investments lost by Madoff's
unfortunate clients.
Picard alleges HSBC was aware of suspicions
about Madoff's business methods and should have taken more care to
protect investors, but was too busy earning fees from promoting the
fund.
According to Picard, HSBC twice asked
accountancy firm KPMG to investigate Madoff's fund, and was on both
occasions warned of the "serious risks".
Last week Picard made similar allegations
against JP Morgan Chase and announced he was suing the US bank for
$6.4 billion. JPMC was the Madoff empire's main banker.
Picard is also pursuing France's BNP Paribas
for $160 million. Two weeks ago he launched a $2 billion suit
against Switzerland's UBS.
All the banks deny complicity in Madoff's
fraud - perhaps the biggest "Ponzi scheme" in US history. Its
investors lost a total of $20 billion, although when the fund
collapsed its accounts showed imaginary assets of $65 billion
shared among nearly five thousand accounts.
Sources
Irving Picard (via PR Newswire)
Irving Picard (2)
Business Week
Bloomberg
Los Angeles Times
Reuters
AP
Bloomberg (2)
FT