NY trustee seeks $80M from Madoff UK unit

The liquidators of Bernard Madoff Securities International Ltd., the United Kingdom arm of the convicted con man's investment firm, Wednesday sued the unit's former directors in a London court seeking at least $80 million.

The suit was filed in conjunction with Irving Picard, the U.S. bankruptcy trustee of Madoff's business.

The defendants include Madoff's brother, Peter, of Old Westbury; his two sons, Mark and Andrew, and five directors, including Stephen Raven, the former chief executive of the European unit, the liquidators said.

The directors breached their duties "by making fraudulent payments to various Madoff-related entities, including payments for luxury goods and services enjoyed by Bernard Madoff and the Madoff family, including a yacht, a home in the south of France, and an Aston Martin car," the liquidators at Grant Thornton Llp said in a statement.

Madoff, 72, pleaded guilty in March 2009 to using money from new investors to pay off old ones in a Ponzi scheme, sparking investigations and dozens of lawsuits. U.K. prosecutors dropped a criminal probe into Madoff's London unit in February after they found "insufficient evidence" to charge anyone.

Raven's lawyer, Nicola Finnerty, declined to immediately comment.

Picard and Stephen Akers, a joint liquidator of MSIL in London, said in a statement that the suit was filed in the U.K.'s High Court of Justice Commercial Court.

European banker Sonja Kohn was also identified as a defendant. Kohn has been separately charged by Picard in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, as have the Madoff family members who had executive roles in the business.

"MSIL was part of Madoff's global shell game," the statement said. "Funds stolen in the Ponzi scheme traveled around the world, but ultimately ended up in the pockets of Madoff, his family and confederates like Sonja Kohn."

Madoff is serving a 150-year term in a North Carolina prison for the fraud that destroyed his New York-based firm, which collapsed in December 2008.

Officials said the decades-long investment scheme cost investors an estimated $20 billion.

In recent weeks, Picard also has sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. to recover $6.4 billion and HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, for $9 billion. Boston-based philanthropist Carl Shapiro, one of Madoff's first clients, along with 19 family members, recently settled potential suits by agreeing to forfeit $625 million in profits.