SEC agrees to settlement in Madoff case

The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached an agreement in principle to settle civil fraud and negligence charges related to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme with Cohmad Securities and three individuals who solicited investments on behalf of Madoff.

According to an amended complaint filed in federal court on Monday, three people who channelled more than $1bn in investor funds into Bernard Madoff Investment Securities have agreed to settle charges that they made “misrepresentations and omissions by referring hundreds of investors” to the Madoff funds.

Robert Jaffe, Maurice Cohn and Marcia Cohn, along with Cohmad Securities, the firm they represented, received more than $100m in commissions and referral fees for bringing investors into Mr Madoff’s funds. As part of the settlement, the defendants neither admit nor deny the SEC’s allegations.

The SEC has not reached a financial settlement with the defendants, who are also fighting accusations and financial claims being brought by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee responsible for locating the Madoff funds and distributing them to victims.

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