Banks Hit Worldwide by U.S Fraud

Some of the world's biggest banks have revealed that they are victims of a fraud which has lost $50 billion. Bernard Madoff has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases. Mr. Madoff founded Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in 1960, but also ran a separate hedge fund business. According to the U.S. Attorney's criminal complaint filed in court, Mr. Madoff told at least three employees on that the hedge fund business — which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1 billion under management — was a fraud and had been insolvent for years. He said that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme", the complaint said.