A number of investors in Bernie Madoff’s $18 billion Ponzi scheme were IRAs, which has had IRA custodians and trustees concerned with the extent of their possible responsibility for such investments. In a decision that the IRA industry generally should find helpful, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado recently dismissed numerous state and federal law claims by IRA account holders who asserted that the IRA trustees (and some of their affiliates) who administered the IRAs should be held responsible for losses incurred in connection with investments made with Madoff’s brokerage firm. Mandelbaum v. Fiserv, Inc., No. 1:09-cv-01356 (D. Colo. Mar. 29, 2011).
We highlight key aspects of the 40-page decision in the attached IRAlert.