Lawyers from 21 countries, including the United States, UK, France, Mexico, Uruguay, Switzerland, Italy, France, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Israel, German, Lithuania, Colombia, Brazil, Austria, Ecuador, Luxembourg, Malta, and Portugal have joined together in a world alliance representing investors who lost out in the alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard Madoff. The Times Online reports that the first meeting of the "Madoff Case Global Alliance of Law Firms" took place in Madrid yesterday.

The Alliance represents banks, hedge funds, public bodies and individual investors, and was coordinated by the Spanish law firm Cremades Calvo-Sotelo. It claims to represent up to three million people who may have lost out in the alleged fraud.

Javier Cremades, president of the Alliance, said: “We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation in the profession: for the first time, lawyers from companies of differing sizes and from different continents have united to give a global response to a global problem. This is especially important with a case like Madoff, which evades, by its very nature, national jurisdictions.”

The Times Online reports that lawyers involved in the group will travel to the US next month for a meeting with SEC Chairman Mary Shapiro. They may also meet Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd.

Read the Times Online article