More firms around the globe disclosed ,Bernard Madoff’s financial records were “utterly unreliable” and will take six months to sort out

Bernard Madoff’s financial records were “utterly unreliable” and will take six months to sort out, said Stephen Harbeck, president of the Securities Investor Protection Corp. “There are some assets, but I have no idea what the relationships of the assets available are to the claims against them,” Harbeck said on Bloomberg Television. “The records are utterly unreliable on this case.” His comments came as Bank Medici AG of Austria became the latest lender to reveal a loss from Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud. Two funds at the Viennese bank, 75 percent owned by Chairman Sonja Kohn, invested $2.1 billion entirely in Madoff’s firm, the bank said today. Other victims included institutions and wealthy individuals from Tokyo to Paris. New York’s Yeshiva University said it lost $110 million, mostly through hedge funds controlled by trustee J. Ezra Merkin. U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, meantime, told the Securities and Exchange Commission to explain how it failed to detect the “giant Ponzi scheme.”More firms around the globe disclosed they were caught up in the $50 billion fraud allegedly perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of Nasdaq.

* BANCO SANTANDER SA - Spain's largest bank said its investment fund, Optimal, has a 2.33 billion euro ($3.05 billion) exposure to Madoff Securities.

* TREMONT HOLDINGS INC - The hedge fund group's Rye Investment Management unit had virtually all of its assets invested with Madoff and lost roughly $3 billion, people familiar with Tremont said. Tremont is a unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co (MassMutual).

* ASCOT PARTNERS LLC - According to a Wall Street Journal report, the fund where former GMAC chairman Jacob Ezra Merkin is a money manager has an exposure of $1.8 billion.

* ACCESS INTERNATIONAL ADVISORS - According to a report by Bloomberg, Access has an exposure of $1.4 billion.

* FORTIS NV - The Dutch banking unit of the group recently acquired by the Dutch government said it may have a loss of up to 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) due to loans made to funds that invested in Madoff Securities.

* HSBC HOLDINGS PLC - The banking and financial services group said it has potential exposure of $1 billion after providing financing to a small number of institutional clients who invested in funds with Madoff.

* BENBASSAT & CIE - The Swiss private bank has an exposure of $1.1 billion francs ($935 million), according to Le Temps.

* UNION BANCAIRE PRIVEE - The Swiss bank that invests in funds of hedge funds has lost about 1 billion francs ($850 million), according to Le Temps, citing unnamed banking sources.

* NATIXIS SA - The French bank said it could have a 450 million euro ($602 million) indirect exposure to Madoff.

* ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP PLC - The bank said it had exposure through trading and collateralized lending to funds of hedge funds invested with Madoff, with a potential loss of around 400 million pounds ($598 million).

* BNP PARIBAS SA - France's largest listed bank said it has a potential 350 million euro ($464 million) exposure.

* BBVA - Spain's second-largest bank said international operation has about 30 million euros of exposure to Madoff, and has a maximum potential loss from Madoff-linked investments of 300 million euros ($404 million).

* MAN GROUP PLC - The U.K. hedge fund said RMF, its fund of funds business, has about $360 million invested in two funds that are directly or indirectly subadvised by Madoff.

* DEXIA SA - The Belgian bank said private banking clients had exposure to funds invested in Madoff of 78 million euros ($107 million). Said bank was exposed through lending operations to funds exposed to Madoff funds to up to 164 million euros ($224 million).

* REICHMUTH & CO - The Swiss private bank said its fund of funds Reichmuth Matterhorn had an exposure to investments linked to Madoff that amounted to about $325 million.
* NOMURA HOLDINGS INC - Japan's biggest brokerage said it had a 27.5 billion yen ($303 million) exposure related to Madoff, but the impact on its capital would be limited.

* MAXAM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC - The fund has lost about $280 million on funds invested with Madoff, a source familiar with the situation said.

* EIM GROUP - Le Temps reported that EIM Group, a fund of hedge funds, said it had a $230 million exposure.

* AOZORA BANK LTD - The Japanese bank said it had an estimated 12.4 billion yen ($137 million) indirect exposure to Madoff through invested funds. It said it expected only limited impact on its capital.

* UNICREDIT SPA (CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) - The Italian bank said its own exposure to Madoff's alleged fraud is about 75 million euros ($101 million). Some funds in its Pioneer Investments unit "are exposed to Madoff indirectly through feeder funds," it said.

* NORDEA BANK AB - The Nordic region's biggest bank said its pension clients had an indirect exposure of 48 million euros ($66 million) to the alleged fraud.

* BENEDICT HENTSCH - Swiss private bank said its exposure to products linked to Madoff amounted to 56 million francs ($47 million), or less than 5 percent of assets under management.

* FAIRFIELD SENTRY LTD - The $7.3 billion hedge fund run by Walter Noel's Fairfield Greenwich Group said it had accounts with Madoff Investment Securities.

* KINGATE GLOBAL FUND LTD - The $2.8 billion hedge fund run by Kingate Management Ltd had invested in Madoff Investment Securities, according to sources.

* UBS AG - The investment bank unit of the Swiss financial group said it has a limited and insignificant counterparty exposure.

* BRAMDEAN ALTERNATIVES LTD - U.K. asset manager, headed by well known fund manager Nicola Horlick, said 9.5 percent of its holdings were exposed to Madoff.

* THE TOWN OF FAIRFIELD, CONN. EMPLOYEES PENSION FUND - The Connecticut pension fund said it had about $40 million managed by Madoff.

* BOSTON PROPERTIES INC BXP.N - Chairman Mort Zuckerman told CNBC television that about 10 percent of one of his charitable trusts was invested with Madoff and had lost about $30 million.

* CHAIS FAMILY FOUNDATION - The group, which donates about $12.5 million annually to Jewish causes, said it will be forced to close after the entire fund was invested with Madoff.

* AUSTIN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT - The company managed money for the Massachusetts state pension fund, which lost $12 million with Madoff, it said.

* BANK MEDICI - The closely held Austrian bank serving wealthy clients and institutional investors, said it held products affected by the fraud, but was not at risk in case of a loss. It declined to say how big the exposure was.

The list grows endlessly.It is clear that the customers of the Madoff firm need the protections available under federal law," Stephen Harbeck, president and CEO of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which helps investors at failed brokerage firms, said Monday in a statement.But, he warned, "it is unlikely that SIPC and the trustee will be able to transfer the customer accounts of the firm to a solvent brokerage firm" due to the state of the firm's records.Shares in Santander, the biggest bank in Spain and the second-largest in Europe after HSBC, plunged after the lender said it had exposed more than three billion dollars to Madoff Investment Securities in New York.