15/05/2014
Madoff: More than 50,000 claims have been received
The US authorities on 13 May announced that they have received over 50,000 claims from parties claiming to be victims of the fraudster Bernard Madoff. These have come from over 100 countries. The Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) established by the Department of Justice to handle these claims had received 51,700 claims from 119 countries as of the deadline of 30 April, says Richard Breeden, its superviser, in a statement. This is three times higher than the number of claims received as part of the legal process. These presumed victims have sought a total of USD40bn in losses, according to the fund. About 58% of the claims come from the United States. Eight of the 10 countries with the most claims are in Europe: Germany, Italy and France make up the top three, followed by Switzerland, Austria and Spain. “The claims received reveal a vast and diverse group of victims,” says Breeden, who estimates that the flow of claims reveals that this pyramid scheme was global. The claims have not yet been examined, and the fund cannot yet say whether they are all valid or if some claims will be cut. The MVF does state that it has received claims from banks and other financial companies that do not meet the defined eligibility criteria. The MVF is responsible for repaying USD4bn recovered by the US Department of Justice for victims of the fraud.
