SFO drops Bernard Madoff London office action

The Serious Fraud Office today said it would not take action against Madoff Securities International — the London offshoot of convicted New York fraud Bernie Madoff — or any of its directors.

The SFO investigated the Mayfair-based business 13 months ago after British and European financiers said they had invested with Madoff, but the police today said there was "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction".

However, the SFO said it was still providing information to foreign law enforcement agencies and continued its own "inquiries into wide aspects of the fraud which may give rise to offending in the UK".

Madoff ran a $65 billion (£40.8 billion) Ponzi scheme which is reckoned to have lost investors $18 billion. Last June he was sentenced to 150 years imprisonment.

The London business was headed by City veteran Stephen Raven who consistently distanced himself from Madoff's New York operations where the frauds took place. The London business employed 30 people who all said they were unaware of the fraud and lost their jobs when the business was placed into liquidation under Grant Thornton in 2008.