Madoff suit aims to recoup bank fees

A lawsuit filed in Miami aims to recoup fees a bank paid to a feeder fund that invested in Bernard Madoff’s fraudulent investment firm, court papers show. The suit filed by Jose and Rosa Pujals of Mexico does not claim the bank, Standard Chartered of London, was a party to Madoff's fraudulent activities. The attorney David Rothstein, who estimated a class-action case on fees was worth more than $5 million, said: "The crux of the suit is what's lost is lost, unfortunately, but at the very least you have to give back the fees you did not earn." The bank collected about $3,000 in fees while investing about $600,000 of the couples' money in feeder fund Fairfield Sentry, which in turn invested in Madoff's firm. Madoff pleaded guilty to conning investors out of about $65 billion. The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange operated the fraud for decades, conning investors into depositing billions of dollars that were then used to pay fictitious returns. While he awaits sentencing, Judge Denny Chin in New York disclosed 113 letters from Madoff victims, almost all calling for a life prison term and some demanding even further punishment. "He has deprived us of the American expectation of a reasonably comfortable old age. We hope that justice will do the same to him," wrote one couple. "While your family is still living HIGH, you have forced many to poverty levels," investor Phyllis Lerner wrote.