Madoff Feeder Fund In Major Court Reversal

In a series of decisions before the BVI Commercial Court and Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, the liquidators of Fairfield have suffered significant reversals in their claims against investors. The decisions are important for a number of reasons. First of all, the value of the claims are staggering; the BVI claims and related actions in the US Courts claim in the region of US$ 7.5 billion. Secondly the defendants are a who's who of the World's financial institutions, and thirdly the legal issues raise very important issues for offshore feeder funds and liquidators.

Background

Fairfield was one of the main feeder funds which invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Limited ("BLMIS") and therefore one of the largest victims of that colossal fraud. Fairfield filed hundreds of claw back claims against investors who redeemed shares before the Madoff fraud was uncovered, both in the BVI and New York.

Fairfield alleges that before Madoff's arrest, investors redeemed based on a Net Asset Value (NAV) which itself was calculated on a now-mistaken value of BLMIS, meaning that all redemption payments should be returned.

The BVI Commercial Court Judgments

The defendants took the slightly unusual step of applying to the BVI Court for a trial of 2...