Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 for his multi-billion dollar scheme, has made this claim before. He told The New York Times in an interview from prison in 2011 that the banks "had to know" he was committing fraud, but chose to turn a blind eye.
Madoff had dealings with a variety of banks and hedge funds, and burned Madoff investors have tried to recoup funds from some of them. Madoff held an account at JPMorgan Chase that he used to shuffle money between offices in London and New York. In 2011, two Madoff investors sued the bank for $19 million, claiming they aided in his fraud, according to CNN. At the time, a JPMorgan spokesman dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless.”
Bernie Madoff: 'The Banks Had To Know What I Was Doing'
