Madoff's European Victims Still Waiting to Recover Losses

More than five years after Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme was uncovered, most European victims of the scam are still waiting to recoup some of their losses. “In the beginning I was confident that under EU law, it was clear who was liable if anything went wrong,” says Frank Amann, a German investor who lost €20,000 ($27,000). Now, Amann says, he doesn’t believe he’ll ever see the money he put into the Herald (Lux) US Absolute Return Fund, one of three Luxembourg-based mutual funds that placed assets with Madoff and liquidated after the scheme collapsed.

Recovery efforts by lawyers representing Madoff’s European investors, most of whom were exposed through funds, are concentrated in Luxembourg, the world’s second-largest fund market. It’s “the most important place in Europe for the outcome of the whole affair,” says Erik Bomans, a partner with Deminor Group, a Brussels-based adviser that represents about 3,000 Madoff investors.