Overseas Madoff investors get 100 cents on the dollar back

MADRID — About 720,000 investors outside the United States who lost money to the convicted swindler Bernard L. Madoff have settled with their banks, receiving about $15.5 billion in all, according to law firms representing those victims of the fraud.

The settlements cover about 80 percent of the clients represented by the firms, said Javier Cremades, founder of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, a Madrid law firm, who helped organize the global alliance of 60 firms a year ago.

The $15.5 billion figure represents, in theory, 100 percent of the amount clients had invested, Mr. Cremades said, but excludes in almost all cases the bogus paper gains that were listed on investor statements.

Looks like the oversea banks didn't want any discovery on their books!