News & Media
Case Updates

On January 8, 2009, Wolf Popper LLP filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of investors in the Fairfield Sentry Limited fund (“Fairfield Sentry”). The complaint alleges various claims against defendants related to losses incurred by Fairfield Sentry investors as a result of the admitted “Ponzi scheme” orchestrated by Bernard L. Madoff (“Madoff”). Substantially all of Fairfield Sentry’s assets were entrusted to Madoff. The complaint was filed against Fairfield Greenwich Group, Fairfield Greenwich Limited, Fairfield Greenwich (Bermuda) Limited, Fairfield Greenwich Advisors LLC, and 22 of the partners and board members, including Walter Noel, Jeffrey Tucker and Andres Piedrahita, for breaches of fiduciary duty, gross negligence, unjust enrichment, breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and mutual mistake. The action has been consolidated and assigned to Judge Victor Marrero.
 
The Complaint alleges that defendants owed investors a fiduciary duty to protect and manage the assets entrusted to them with care, diligence and the highest degree of good faith, and that they breached this duty. The Complaint further alleges that defendants were obligated by contractual terms in the August 14, 2006 Private Placement Memorandum to perform due diligence on potential fund managers and perform ongoing monitoring of existing relationships with fund managers. The complaint alleges that defendants also breached those obligations. As a direct result of defendants’ alleged unlawful conduct, investors suffered avoidable losses and defendants were unjustly enriched.
 
It is estimated that Fairfield Sentry Limited had approximately $7.3 billion of investment exposure and that approximately $1.0 billion was paid in management, performance and placement fees to the Fairfield Greenwich Group and its affiliates. The complaint alleges that the defendants did not perform the necessary due diligence before placing funds that had been entrusted to their care under Bernard L. Madoff’s “management.” The complaint further alleges that because defendants did not perform this due diligence they breached their fiduciary duties and the contract created by the Private Placement Memorandum, and were unjustly enriched.
 

Email: outreach@wolfpopper.com
Case Inquiries