Madoff Firm Liquidator Seeks $95 Million From Kuwait Bank, Feeder Fund

By Linda Sandler – Aug 26, 2011 6:53 AM ET

The liquidator of Bernard Madoff’s firm sued the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) S.A.K. in one of five lawsuits demanding return of about $95 million in funds withdrawn from a so-called feeder fund to the Ponzi scheme.

The Kuwait bank withdrew $18.7 million from Fairfield Sentry Ltd., one of the larger feeder funds, taking money that belonged to customers of the jailed con man, trustee Irving Picard said in a complaint posted on his website yesterday. Separately, he sued Delta National Bank & Trust Co. for $20.6 million and demanded $26.8 million from Unifortune Asset Management Sgr SpA with smaller amounts from two other fund companies.

Picard, who has filed more than 1,000 suits, is pursuing comparatively small amounts from investors who redeemed money from the feeders before Madoff’s 2008 arrest. The trustee’s settlement with Walter Noel’s Fairfield Sentry was approved in court in June.

The trustee last month lost the right to claim almost $9 billion in damages from HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and feeder funds after a ruling by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who said Picard was free to pursue bankruptcy claims. Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a prison in North Carolina.

A call to the Kuwait bank’s main number went unanswered after regular business hours.

To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in London at lsandler@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net