Santander said in papers filed in federal court in Miami that it was duped by Madoff and that shareholders in two funds that invested with the con man cant sue the bank directly. The suit is a proposed class action to include all Santander customers in Latin America who lost money in the Madoff Ponzi scheme.
“Defendants failure to detect Madoffs fraud was not due to their intentional or severely reckless failure,” Santander said in the Nov. 18 filing. “The far more likely, and hence plausible, inference - - - - >

Red flags such as K1s move to the British Virgin Islands after a confrontation with German regulators should have alerted the banks about the risks of doing business with Kiener, said Harald Glander, a Frankfurt attorney who specializes in capital markets law.
“Banks arent the granny from next door,” said Glander, a lawyer at London-based law firm Norton Rose LLP who isnt involved in the matter. “Whenever investors, including banks, buy such a structure, they must do their due diligence.”
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The “problem occurred when I made commitments for too much money and then I couldnt put the strategy to work,” Madoff told SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz in a June 17 interview described in a report yesterday. “It was my mistake not to just be out a couple hundred million dollars and get out.”
Kotzs exhibits, including an account of his interview with Madoff, were posted on the SECs Web site. No transcript of the interview was released.
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Picowers wife, Barbara, on Sunday discovered the 67-year-olds body at the bottom of the pool at their oceanside mansion and pulled him from the water with help from a housekeeper, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Medical Center at about 1:30 p.m. Palm Beach police are investigating the death as a drowning, but have not ruled out anything on the cause of death.
Picower had been accused by jilted investors of being the biggest beneficiary of Madoffs schemes. In a lawsuit to recover Madoffs assets, trustee Irving Picard demanded Picower return more than $7 billion in bogus profits. - - - - >

The trustee, Irving Picard, sought $198.7 million from Madoffs brother, Peter, who had worked at Madoffs Manhattan investment company since 1965, and sons, Mark and Andrew.
Also sued was Shana D. Madoff, Bernard Madoffs niece and Peter Madoffs daughter.
Bernard Madoff, 71, a former Nasdaq chairman, is serving a 150-year sentence for the fraud in connection with a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. No other family members have been criminally charged. The lawsuit said the defendants at least should have seen signs of irregularity and fraud at the company “but either failed to make sufficient inquiry or knew of the fraud, ignored it, and - - - - >

But SEC inspector general David Kotzs report found no evidence of any improper ties between agency officials and Madoff.
Despite speculation that senior SEC officials may have tried to influence the probes, a summary of Kotzs 450-page report released Wednesday also found no evidence of that.
The SEC enforcement staff, conducting investigations of Madoffs business, “almost immediately caught (him) in lies and misrepresentations, but failed to follow up on inconsistencies” and rejected whistleblowers offers to provide additional evidence, the report says.
Revelations in December of the agencys failure to uncover Madoffs massive Ponzi scheme over more than a decade touched off one of - - - - >

Galvin spokesman Brian McNiff said Sunday that his agency is not accepting New York-based Fairfield Greenwich Groups offer to fully refund nearly a dozen investors in the state because officials are still trying to identify all the affected investors.
Galvin filed a civil fraud complaint against Fairfield Greenwich in April, saying officials were coached by Madoff on how to answer federal investigators questions and misrepresented how much they knew. The secretary of states securities division has set a hearing for Sept. 9.
The firm disputes Galvins allegations.
Fairfield Greenwich spokesman Thomas Mulligan said Sunday that the firm - - - - >

Trustee Irving H. Picard spelled out his claims in a lawsuit against Ruth Madoff in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Ruth Madoff several weeks ago moved out of a $7 million Manhattan penthouse where she and her husband had lived during their 49-year marriage.
Ruth Madoffs lawyer, Peter Chavkin, said in a statement that Picards action was “wrong as a matter of law and fairness.”
He said the lawsuit was “particularly perplexing and totally unjustified” because his client has already forfeited to the federal prosecutors office nearly all of the assets described in the lawsuit.
“At the same time, after a thorough and - - - - >

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said the agency has been revamping itself, buttressing enforcement efforts and taking initiatives to protect investors in the wake of the financial crisis and the agencys failure to uncover the massive Madoff fraud despite red flags.
The agency has undergone fundamental changes in recent months “that will reinforce our focus on investor protection and market integrity,” Schapiro told the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets.
A series of regulatory proposals made by the SEC have included restricting short-selling in down markets, strengthening oversight of mutual funds, tightening scrutiny of investment advisers and making it easier for shareholders - - - - >

The agents - already there for more than six months - say the chore is so daunting, they need to stay in the Manhattan skyscraper at least another year.
And by the way: They intend to hang on to the copy machine.
The former headquarters of Bernard Madoff are a home away from home for the FBI and, as of July 1, a leasing opportunity for any potential tenant who can stomach its status as ground zero of the largest securities swindle in history.
“Some people may see a stigma associated with it,” building manager Russell Freeman said on a recent tour of - - - - >