CFTC Obtains Almost $500 Million Award in a Madoff Feeder Case

By Andrew Harris, Bloomberg News

A former Switzerland-based investment manager who put money into funds tied to Bernard Madoff’s fraud and blamed losses on the collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd. is liable for almost $500 million in fines and restitution.

A U.S. judge in Chicago rendered the award on Jan. 11, more than three years after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Nikolai Battoo and his businesses, accusing them of fraud. A former Florida resident, Battoo never contested the regulator’s lawsuit filed in September 2012, nor did he fight a parallel lawsuit filed in the same court on ...