Madoff, 79, pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Five of Madoff’s top aides were convicted after a trial in 2014. Neither Kohn nor anyone in the Benbassat family were ever accused of criminal wrongdoing.
Bank Medici
Bank Medici was shuttered by Swiss regulators after Madoff’s fraud was exposed. Thema and its principals have long denied any wrongdoing, laying the blame on Madoff and the feeder fund’s custodian bank, HSBC Holdings Plc. They sued the London-based bank for $1.1 billion, blaming the lender for failing to scrutinize Madoff’s operations. The suit was settled in 2013. HSBC also paid $62 million to Thema investors to settle a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court.
Thema and the funds were sued by Picard in 2010. Lagoon and related funds in June agreed to hand over about $240 million to the trustee to settle the case, while Thema Fund Ltd. and its affiliates agreed to pay about $130 million.
Picard sued Kohn in London as part of his lawsuit against Madoff’s sons and other directors of his European operations, alleging they were liable for the losses of Madoff’s U.K. unit. But the lawsuit was dismissed and Kohn was vindicated. Madoff "tainted their good names simply by association," a judge said.
Picard, an attorney with Baker & Hostetler LLP in Manhattan, was hired by the industry-financed Securities Investor Protection Corp. to recover cash for victims shortly after Madoff’s arrest in December 2008. SIPC, rather than the victim fund, has funded all of the fees and expenses associated with the case.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.