Santander suspicious of Madoff in 2006

Spanish banking giant Santander was suspicious of Bernard Madoff's activities as far back as 2006, internal documents show.

Santander - which has bought Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and parts of Bradford & Bingley in the UK in recent years - staff were aware that the convicted fraudster's operations were "shrouded in secrecy" and that his trading was not being independently verified. Madoff confessed to his crimes in December 2008.

The claims, made in an internal report written by a Swiss-based division of Santander, were laid bare in a court filing as part of a class action against the Spanish bank being brought in Miami, writes the Telegraph.

The report was penned by a unit of Santander's Optimal Investment Services, and was disclosed in court by a group of largely Latin American investors who are now suing Optimal for not failing to protect them from investing in his funds.

Santander and its investors lost in excess of $3.2bn (£2.2bn) as a result of Madoff's $65bn Ponzi scheme fraud. FULL STORY...