New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed civil fraud charges against J. Ezra Merkin, former Chairman GMAC Financial Services and hedge fund manager.
Merkin gave $2.4 billion to Bernard Madoff without telling his clients where the money was going. He is accused of lying to his clients by telling them he was going to personally invest their money, and hid his connections with Madoff.
"Merkin duped individual investors, non-profits, and charities into believing he was responsibly managing their investments, when in actuality he was dumping them into history's largest Ponzi scheme," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
Merkin's attorney, Andrew Levander, called the lawsuit "hasty," "ill-conceived" and "without merit," and he denied that clients had been kept in the dark.
"Contrary to the attorney generals allegation, investors in the Ascot Funds were well aware that the money was being invested with Madoff," Levander said.
Lavander even went so far as to say some of Merkin's clients met personally with Madoff.
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