Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – One of Geneva’s very discreet private banks, Notz & Stucki, has lost $750 million to Bernard Madoff’s failed investment scheme in New York, Le Temps reports Friday morning. Two other banks have lost smaller amounts. The banks will all write off the losses, but Notz & Stucki is reportedly suing.
L’Hebdo reports that two other banks have acknowledged losses on a smaller scale, Piguet, which is part of BCV, and Cramer & Cie.
Le Temps credits an internal source with the information about the Geneva bank. It says that the bank’s wealthy clients invested in its star fund, Pendulum, which invested 7.6% of its money in Plaza International, one of Madoff’s funds. The bank reportedly made one or two visits a year to Madoff headquarters in New York and were reassured by several investigations into the company by US authorities – including one, says Le Temps, in 2005, which dismissed the possibility of fraud.
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News story, GenevaLunch, 19 December 2008.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: Geneva, Madoff, Notz & Stucki, Swiss banks, wealth managers
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:39 am
Notz Stucki not only had exposure, but they hired the team at Santander that architected Optimal’s Madoff exposure.
There is obviously too much group thinking occurring in Geneva.