Bernard Madoff victims get $1bn from 'feeder funds'

A trustee tasked with returning money to victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme fraud says more than $1bn (£610m) has been recovered from investment funds which placed money with the fraudster.

Irving Pickering said the total money recovered now stands at $8.6bn, according to the BBC.

Tremont Group was among those funds that settled. The New York-based investment firm was regarded as a feeder fund for Madoff.

Madoff is serving 150 years in jail in the US for a $65bn fraud which hit thousands of investors' savings.

It unravelled when Madoff's investors, hit by the economic downturn, tried to withdraw about $7bn, but he could not produce the money.