After Madoff Victims Filed Lawsuit Banco Santander Offers 1.3Billion Euro Settlement

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan 28, 2009 -
Investors, who invested through Spanish bank Banco Santander (NYSE:STD) and are victims of the Madoff $50Billion ponzi scheme, filed a proposed class action lawsuit in Miami, claiming the bank neglected proper fiduciary oversight. Today Spain's Banco Santander offered euro1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) to reimburse clients who lost money in New York financier Bernard Madoff's alleged ponzi scheme in the U.S. Spain's largest bank, one of the institutions hardest hit in the scandal, said it was offering the compensation to private customers. It made no mention of institutional investors.

If you have invested through Spanish bank Banco Santander. (NYSE:STD) and are a victim of Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme, you have certain options and you should contact the Shareholders Foundation, Inc. immediately.

Email: Mail@shareholdersfoundation.com

Or

Call us today 001 858 779 1554 (English/Spanish)

The lawsuituit was filed in U.S. federal court in Miami by American and Spanish attorneys and accuses all the defendants of violating US securities regulations, of gross negligence, of negligent misrepresentation and of unjustly enriching themselves, and alleges Banco Santander was negligent and reckless in allowing its Strategic U.S. Equity fund to invest with Madoff. The lawsuit claims Banco Santander was negligent, contending there was a "plethora of red flags" that should have alerted the bank that Madoff was running what the lawsuit says was Ponzi scheme. The plaintiffs claim that “despite the considerable fees charged to investors and the repeated representations that Optimal Investment would carefully select the managers, all of the Plaintiffs’ and the Class’ funds were stolen through the Madoff Ponzi scheme” and “Defendants paid themselves tens of millions of dollars in fees, and perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars, predicated on phoney profits”.
Banco Santander has earlier admitted it lost $3 billion through investments in Bernard L. Madoff Securities. These are not rich investors but mainly people who invested their entire life savings in Santander told a lawyer the Forbes. "They did not have any formal financial background and trusted Santander to invest their money wisely. They were told this was a stable investment. The next thing they knew they lost all their investments." In late December, Spain's anti-corruption prosecutor opened a probe into the alleged investment fraud run by Madoff to determine if any persons or organizations in Spain had cooperated in the scheme. The plaintiffs in the case filed in Miami invested through Optimal Investment Services, a firm managed by Banco Santander. In addition to the class-action suit, over 100 Spanish investors are scheduled for talks with both Barclays Bank and Banco Santander, said the Times Online yesterday, in a bid to recover cash.  Fifty other investors are also involved in another action there. Attorneys reportedly said that if the bank had carried out appropriate and “diligent analysis” of Madoff and his firm, it “wouldn’t have lost billions of dollars belonging to investors,” quoted Bloomberg, which added that the complaint stated that the Optimal fund earned a “handsome compensation” for its claims to provide “intensive due diligence” and “detailed scrutiny” of its investments.  It seems, according to the complaint, said Bloomberg, the fund likely earned about $44 million annually in fees alone based on an average commission of 1.9 percent of assets under management. The civil class action suit names Banco Santander along with Santander International, Optimal Investment Services, the bank’s Swiss-based hedge fund arm, Optimal’s former Chief Executive Officer Manuel Echeverria, and PwC, the auditors, and two HSBC units in Ireland are also named as defendants for their administration and custodianship of the investments.
Echeverria resigned in June and the timing of his resignation is one of many aspects of the Madoff scandal under investigation.  The Wall Street Journal said Echeverría presided over the Optimal fund while it built its relationship with Madoff; he left in June after 19 years there and five colleagues followed.
Bloomberg also quoted the complaint as stating that, “Despite the considerable fees charged to investors and the repeated representations that Optimal Investment would carefully select the management, all of the Plaintiffs’ and the Class’ funds were stolen.  This theft could have been avoided if Defendants had fulfilled their duties.”  The complaint also states that Santander missed a “plethora of red flags” pointing to the Ponzi and, “Defendants paid themselves tens of millions of dollars in fees, and perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars, predicated on phony profits,” reported Bloomberg.
Just weeks before Madoff’s scheme collapsed, managers at Santander were praising Madoff’s supposedly “impeccable” market timing, according to a report on FT.com.  
At least 19 civil lawsuits seeking to recover Madoff-related losses have been filed in four countries since the broker’s December 11 arrest.


If you have invested through Spanish bank Banco Santander. (NYSE:STD) and are a victim of Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme, you have certain options and you should contact the Shareholders Foundation, Inc. immediately.

Email: Mail@shareholdersfoundation.com

Or

Call us today 001 858 779 1554 (English/Spanish)


or send us your information by mail /facsimile:

Shareholders Foundation, Inc.
Trevor Allen
3111 Camino Del Rio North - Suite 423 -
92108 San Diego
Tel:+1-(858)-779-1554
Fax:+1-(858)-605-5739
Mail@ShareholdersFoundation.com
www.ShareholdersFoundation.com
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