Edwin Coe LLP
Press Release
1 July 2009
MADOFF CASE: GLOBAL ALLIANCE OF LAW FIRMS
The Global Alliance of Law Firms ('the Global Alliance') presents its initial views on how Bernard Madoff´s sentence affects the victims of the fraud and the solutions available to them. The Alliance also provides a profile of the average investor affected by the Madoff fraud.
On 1st July, 2009 members of The Global Alliance of Law Firms hosted a Press Conference in London at the offices of Edwin Coe LLP. The purpose of this press conference was to inform and put forward the views of the affected investors of the fraud in relation to the sentence imposed by US Judge, Denny Chin. The sentence, which was announced last Monday, consists of a 150 year prison sentence for a crime which a federal judge called an act of "extraordinary evil".
For the victims this is a very important sentence and one which provides a certain amount of relief for the relevant financial institutions and their affected clients. However, it should not be forgotten that thousands of people are still waiting for some sort of solution. These investors in most cases trusted their savings to financial institutions, but according to Javier Cremades, Chairman of Spanish Law Firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo and Chairman of the Global Alliance, "The victims do not want to litigate against any institution. Their only interest is to recover some of the money administered by banks and intermediaries."
Javier Cremades also stated that, "At this stage, only the Bank of Kuwait and Banco Santander have in any way compensated their clients. In taking these decisions, both institutions have not only avoided thousands of claims but they have also recovered the confidence of their clients, which is key to their business". From the outset, the member law firms of the Global Alliance have promoted and, in many cases, achieved extrajudicial agreements between intermediaries and victims. Vice Chair Gaytri Kachroo, has been assisting counsel as they pursue various class action lawsuits, as well as a number of investor’s world-wide with regard to their recovery in the U.S. She indicated that, "although the 150 year sentence provides emotional vindication to the victims of Madoff (the maximum penalty possible), many investors may not be made whole financially and have lost all of their savings."
Through the information shared by the law firms of the Global Alliance and the inquiries made by their committees, Javier Cremades confirmed that "the profile of the typical affected investor is a 54 year-old male, who has invested $35,000.00 through a financial intermediary and who is not interested in commencing any sort of judicial proceedings. The average investment is lower since some investments were done through pension and investment funds and other collective investment schemes. However, if the victims are not at least partially compensated for those losses, they will not have another chance to go to Court."
A delegation of the Global Alliance of Law Firms met in March with members of the U.S. Congress and the Securities Exchange Commission for the purpose of launching an International Financial Court with a proposed authority to respond internationally through enforcement mechanisms and regulatory prevention of such cross-border fraud and corruption. Vice Chair Gaytri Kachroo has been working on this initiative with members of Congress to appoint a Congressional Commission that would mandate further study of the appropriate international adjudicative mechanism with minimum delays. Additionally, the subsidiary body of the General Assembly of the United Nations, UNCITRAL, is working on this issue. The purpose of UNCITRAL is to further the progressive harmonization and unification of the law of international trade.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
David Greene on +44 (0)20 7691 4000
Miguel Larios on +34 91 426 4050
The Global Alliance of Law Firms operates as a coordinated pressure group capable of defending clients’ interests in different jurisdictions. The Global Alliance was incorporated in Madrid on February 17th, 2009. Members are Law Firms from diverse jurisdictions, such as: USA, UK, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Holland, France, Brazil, Malta, Mexico, Panama, Portugal, Chile, Switzerland and Uruguay.
