Investors had accused PwC of negligence in auditing Madoff feeder fund
By Jacqueline Palank Follow Jan. 7, 2016 4:55 pm ET
PricewaterhouseCoopers agreed to pay $55 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of misleading investors in feeder funds that funneled their cash to Bernard Madoff.
The cash deal, filed Wednesday in a Manhattan federal court, heads off a trial that would have begun this week in which investors in Fairfield Greenwich Ltd. were set to accuse PwC affiliates of negligence in connection with their work auditing Fairfield’s funds, which invested with Mr. Madoff.
Investors have asked a federal judge to schedule a hearing in the spring to consider the deal, reached with PwC’s Canadian and Dutch units as well as with PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd….
Lawsuits from investors who sue auditors for their alleged negligence tend to settle to avoid a trial. An exception was last fall’s trial at which a state court jury found auditor Ernst & Young liable for the losses sustained by another Madoff feeder fund, FutureSelect Portfolio Management Inc., upon the collapse of Mr. Madoff’s fraud. Ernst & Young denies wrongdoing.
Arrested in December 2008, Mr. Madoff is currently serving a 150-year prison sentence for operating a multibillion-dollar fraud, the largest Ponzi scheme ever.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pwc-to-pay-55-million-to-settle-madoff-related-lawsuit-1452198197
