Bloomberg – A former hedge-fund manager who invested about 20 million pounds ($31.4 million) in a Ponzi scheme lost a claim against Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s NatWest unit, which operated accounts used in the fraud.
Jeremy Stone, a former portfolio manager at Marble Bar Asset Management LLP, sued NatWest and an employee, Paul Aplin, seeking as much as 26 million pounds. He claimed Aplin and the bank were negligent for not spotting suspicious activity.
Stone and members of his family who were employed by his investment firm gave testimony that was “heavily colored by a very strong wish that they had not been duped as they were and a strong impulse to think” someone else must be to blame, Judge Philip Sales wrote in a ruling today.
Aplin, who managed the accounts, was an honest man, Sales said, adding he didn’t fault the bank for using automated systems to detect fraud.
