Brazilians Lost Money in Madoff’s Funds, Folha Says
Brazilians Lost Money in Madoff’s Funds, Folha Says
By Laura Price
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian investors lost “tens of millions” of dollars through banks that put money into Bernard Madoff’s funds, Folha de S. Paulo reported, citing David Rosemberg, a lawyer at Orlando, Florida-based Broad and Cassel.
At least 15 individuals and financial advisers in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and other Brazilian cities contacted Rosemberg about their losses, the newspaper said. The clients invested in some Safra banks, Banco Santander SA, UBS AG and Fairfield Greenwich Group and didn’t know their money had been directed to Madoff’s funds, the newspaper said.
“Brazil, out of all the Latin American countries, was probably hardest hit,” Rosemberg said today when contacted by Bloomberg News. “Banks were putting money into Madoff without understanding Madoff’s business. There was an element of peer pressure, everyone else was doing it.”
Robert Siegfried, a spokesman for Banco Safra SA with outside public-relations firm Kekst & Co., told Bloomberg News that Banco Safra SA in Brazil had no involvement in Madoff’s funds. None of the Safra banks promoted any of the Madoff funds, he said. Some Safra-family banks outside Brazil did invest in some Madoff funds if customers specifically requested to do so, Siegfried told Bloomberg News in an interview, without naming the banks.
Fairfield Greenwich Group, Walter Noel’s hedge-fund that had $7.5 billion with Madoff, was sued last week for at least the third time by investors in the U.S. over claims it failed to protect their assets. Thomas Mulligan, a New-York based spokesman for the firm, said last week that Fairfield “intends to cooperate with all regulatory procedures.”
Fairfield Greenwich spokeswoman Bianca Haegler declined to comment, Folha said.
UBS Pactual told the newspaper it didn’t recommend the product to its Brazilian clients. Calls to a UBS spokeswoman outside of office hours in Sao Paulo by Bloomberg News weren’t immediately returned, while Santander’s press office wasn’t immediately reachable.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Price in London at lprice3@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 18, 2009 12:39 EST
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