(NECN: Brian Burnell, Fairfield, Conn.) - On March 12, 2009 the crush outside federal court in lower Manhattan was unlike anything ever before seen there. The star who brought out this throng, super villain Bernard Madoff. He admitted that day to scamming clients out of an estimated 65-billion dollars. Many individuals were wiped out and some charities had to close their doors.
Among Bernie Madoff's victims... the town of Fairfield, Connecticut. The pension fund here took a 40-million dollar hit and since then officials have been going after the Madoff money in civil court and Madoff himself in criminal court.
Ken Flatto is first selectman. He says the town has three claims pending in the Madoff case and they include people they feel are complicit in the ponzi scheme.
Ken Flatto, D-Fairfield First Selectman: "Against the middle men, the 3rd parties. All the people that advised us. All the people that managed out accounts for us that ended up putting up in this situation."
The idea is those brokers and accounts either knew or should have known what Madoff was selling was too good to be true.
Ken Flatto, D-Fairfield First Selectman: "We had professional advisors, professional managers, professional accountants. They were all supposed to do a job to advise our investments, give us due diligence, give us reports. And we relied on those. The pension board relied on those and we were victimized by them."
And the pursuit doesn't end there. Flatto is convinced others knew what was going on even better than the accountants.
Ken Flatto, D-Fairfield First Selectman: "Our suits include a number of parties including members of the Madoff family who we believe had corollary responsibility and we believe knew or should have known or may have had information about this long before it was public."
As for the criminal investigation that was turned over by the Fairfield Police Department to the Connecticut State Banking Commission.
