Spanish Prosecutors Probe Bank’s $3.1B Client Losses to Madoff

Spanish prosecutors are investigating the loss of €2.3 billion ($3.1 billion) in funds invested with accused financier Bernard Madoff by Europe's second-largest bank, Banco Santander.

Santander invested money with Madoff for wealthy clients across Europe and Latin America, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). Investigators want to know more about the bank’s relationship with Madoff and whether officials there were aware of problems before Madoff admitted losing as much as $50 billion in the alleged Ponzi scheme.

Santander’s losses with Madoff are the third-largest by a company. Losing the most was Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, with $7.5 billion in losses. Prosecutors are probing the relationship between Fairfield and Santander, the story says.

Fairfield has been sued by its investors in a class action lawsuit.

Fairfield partner Andres Piedrahita, who invested client money with Madoff, also managed at least one fund for Santander that had losses, the story says.