Madoff judge orders bank employees' names unsealed (Reuters)

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 7:01 PM By dwi

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The judge overseeing the execution of Bernard Madoff's assets concern on weekday rejected requests by banks to ready info the obloquy of underway and past employees mentioned in lawsuits hunt to better questionable improper profits equal to the imprisoned Ponzi schemer.

The open revealing of obloquy of workers related with business institutions including Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS AG was ordered by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge histrion Lifland.

These obloquy were utilised in lawsuits filed by author Picard, the fiduciary liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, to better money for past Madoff investors, but the obloquy were redacted from publically diffuse versions of the lawsuits. Picard has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits hunt to better roughly $100 billion.

News media including New York Times Co and Comcast Corp's NBC News, CNBC and WNBC-TV had requested that the obloquy be revealed.

Banks countered that revealing was unnecessary, and could stigmatize the employees or declare misconduct.

"The open has a eligible First Amendment correct to admittance destined righteousness documents," and the federal insolvency code "creates a brawny assumption that suite records in insolvency transactions are reachable to the public," Lifland wrote.

"At bottom," the judge added, "the defendants have not adequately established any harm beyond merely difficult or prejudicial connexion with these Ponzi scheme proceedings."

Lifland did earmark JPMorgan to ready low seal aggregation concerning its "know-your-customer" and anti-money laundering procedures.

The fiduciary is suing JPMorgan, Madoff's important bank, to better $6.4 billion.

Representatives of Citigroup, JPMorgan and UBS did not directly return calls hunt comment.

Picard himself had anti a broad-based judgement to ready obloquy secret.

"Other than when an individualist is titled as a defendant, it is the hospital which is live with badness for its role in turning a blindfold receptor to indicia of fraud," his lawyer, king Sheehan, wrote in a March 18 honor to Lifland. "Individuals played a variety of roles, including that of apprising others of possibleness humbug at BLMIS. Under these circumstances, a blanket judgement that all identities should rest redacted does not materialize warranted."

The housing is In re: Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-01789.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by metropolis Hill)


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