UK Madoff liquidators file U.S. bankruptcy petition

MIAMI (Reuters) - The British liquidators of convicted swindler Bernard Madoff's London securities trading firm filed a petition in U.S. bankruptcy court on Tuesday and sued Madoff's brother for the return of a rare Aston Martin car.

The liquidators, appointed by England's High Court of Justice for Madoff Securities International Ltd (MSIL), filed the case in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, under Chapter 15 of U.S. bankruptcy laws, which deals with insolvency cases involving more than one country.

The petition will allow the liquidators, Stephen John Akers, Mark Richard Byers and Andrew Laurence Hosking, "to marshal assets that may have been fraudulently transferred from MSIL to individuals residing with the jurisdiction of the Court," court documents said.

In a companion lawsuit, the liquidators sued to recover a 1964 Aston Martin bought through "the improper and unauthorized diversion of funds from MSIL's accounts," court papers said.

Madoff, the disgraced New York financier who once headed the NASDAQ stock market, pleaded guilty on March 12 to running the biggest investment fraud in Wall Street history, involving as much as $65 billion (43.6 billion pounds). He was immediately jailed and could be sent to prison for life when sentenced in June.

MSIL, his London company, employed 28 workers, including 14 traders, at its offices in London's Mayfair District, the suit said.

The company traded for Madoff's personal accounts and those of his relatives, and the accounts were used by Madoff to buy "valuable personal assets such as luxury yachts, automobiles and furnishings for himself and members of the Madoff family," the petition said.

Two wire transfers, made from an MSIL account last year and totalling 135,000 pounds, were used to buy a 1964 Aston Martin delivered to Madoff's brother Peter Madoff, a director and manager of MSIL, at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, the lawsuit said.

MSIL suffered losses in excess of $235,000 as a result. The petition seeks the return of the car and punitive damages.