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Bank Santander has reportedly told investors who bought Madoff-hit products they have until Feb. 05, 2009 to accept a compensation offer made by the bank, daily ABC reported on Friday, citing agency EFE.
But Bloomberg says that the “Banco Santander SA’s 1.38 billion- euro ($1.8 billion) offer to compensate clients hit by Bernard Madoff’s alleged fraud may leave them with preferred shares they can’t trade and that the bank might not buy back “ and that this is “a risk Santander clients will have to weigh along with the strings attached to the offer of stock paying a 2 percent annual yield. “Accepting the offer includes a commitment to not take legal action against Santander or private banking business Optimal over Madoff and to continue banking with Santander. On Tuesday, the bank said it would compensate all individual clients who suffered losses in the alleged Bernard Madoff fraud, but not institutional investors. Reportedly managers from the bank have been calling their private banking clients in Spain, Latin America and elsewhere one by one in recent days and arranging appointments.
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 at 001 858 779 1554 (English/Spanish)
Some clients are incensed with the offer, which purports to pay back 100 per cent of the sums invested but is estimated by lawyers and analysts to be worth only about 20 per cent. Santander denied a report it had given investors who bought Madoff-hit products until Feb. 5 to accept a compensation offer. "No deadline for investors to accept the offer has been set," a spokeswoman for the bank said.
Bloomberg reported yesterday that Banco Santander SA’s hedge fund unit used risk software that according to its developer may have “waved red flags” about Bernard Madoff investments. “You definitely would have seen it,” Riskdata SA Chief Executive Officer Ingmar Adlerberg said in a phone interview from Paris.
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. The lawsuit 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."
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”
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 at 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)-
Fax:+1-(858)-
mail@shareholdersfoundation.com
www.ShareholdersFoundation.com
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