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Compliance November 14, 2012
N.Y. AG Wins Settlement of Madoff Claims
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a settlement of more than $210 million with Ivy Asset Management.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
The settlement concludes lawsuits against Ivy by the attorney general, the Department of Labor (DOL) and private plaintiffs that claim the Bank of New York Mellon subsidiary’s deception and violation of its fiduciary duty led Ivy’s clients to lose more than $236 million after the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Among the victims were hundreds of individual investors as well as dozens of New York union pension and welfare plans.
The lawsuit, filed in 2010 by Andrew Cuomo, then New York AG, alleges that former officials of Ivy Asset Management discovered that Madoff was not being straight about his investing, yet kept quiet about their concerns as they earned about $40 million between 1998 and 2008 for advising Madoff investors. (See “Ivy Asset Management Sued over Madoff Scheme.”)
Under the settlement, the $210 million will be used to return money to investors and pay the fees and expenses of the attorney general, the DOL and private plaintiffs.