Banco Santander, the largest bank in Spain has offered to pay private banking clients 1.38 billion euros ($1.8 billion dollars) for money lost in the alleged Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff.
The offer, which does not apply to institutional investors, was announced Tuesday as investors brought a class-action suit against the Spanish bank in U.S. District Court in Miami. They accused the bank of not adequately scrutinizing the Madoff investments, according to Bloomberg.
The Santander bank is apparently the financial institution which has been hit hardest by the Madoff fraud as well as the first financial institution to go for a settlement with clients over the Bernard Madoff scandal, which could set the way for other institutions to follow suit.
Mr. Madoff has been under house arrest after posting bail prior to his arrest last year on 11th December after allegedly confessing to his sons that his $50 billion investment business was a Ponzi scheme where early investors were paid with money from new investors.
Image by daquellamanera under Creative Commons.
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