US Edition Ten wealthy investors have approached law firm Edwin Coe wishing to sue the intermediaries for the money they lost in the $50bn (£36.8bn) Madoff collapse. It is understood that one of the investors had £36m invested in the Madoff funds.
David Greene, head of litigation at Edwin Coe, said that investors were looking for parties who may have insurance and assets, since the fund is bust. "When you are in a position where the whole of an investment strategy is a fiction you are bound to ask questions about the advice you were given," he said.
Mr Greene said his clients were yet to make a decision on whether to join a class action lawsuit in America or launch an action in Britain.
The exposure of Mr Madoff's fund as little more than an alleged Ponzi scheme has been embarrassing for some Britain's most well-known advisers. Nicola Horlick, head of Bramdean Asset Management, which wrote off £12.4m invested in two hedge funds run by Madoff, has blamed a "systemic failure" of US regulators for the debacle.
Barclays Wealth Management has said it has a small number of clients with exposure to the alleged fraud through a third-party hedge fund. UBS exposure to Madoff's fund is through Luxalpha, a fund based in Luxembourg. UBS is custodian to the fund, but is not registered as the manager of Luxalpha.