At least $50 million Madoff funds has been discovered in a Gibraltar bank. Authorities have been on the look out for any transactions bearing his name. On seeing his name on transfer documents the Gibraltar branch of Safra Bank froze the funds and informed the police.
The funds held in offshore bank accounts are likely to be the source of intense dispute between trustees looking to collect compensation for Madoff victims and investors with legitimate claims. It is unclear to date whether the transfers were part of a Madoff effort to hide assets or entirely legitimate.
These funds may be just one instance of many seizures linked to Madoff made by banks throughout Europe and the Caribbean, mostly in offshore banking centers.
Investors who liquidated before news of the Ponzi scheme became public are not 100% certain that they got out in time, or even if that matters. Trustees oerseeing the fraud case are entitled to demand that investors give back funds withdrawn earlier according to a system known as ”clawback”.
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