The High Court is close to deciding the first round of a battle between the French Government and the liquidator of the London division of Bernard Madoff’s bankrupt business over who owns Mr Madoff’s $7 million 55ft luxury yacht The Bull.
The Bull, which was moored in the South of France, was seized by French police last year when Mr Madoff’s Ponzi, or pyramid, scheme collapsed.
Financière Meeschaert, a French investment firm, which asked the French Government to impound the yacht, told the High Court yesterday that The Bull should be given to it to cover Mr Madoff’s debts to its clients.
Grant Thornton, Mr Madoff’s British liquidator, and Dundas & Wilson, its lawyers, argue that the yacht belongs to creditors of the London-based Madoff Securities International Ltd.
The court is expected to rule in the next few days on whether the full case will be heard in London or France.