LONDON (Reuters) - The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened an investigation into the UK operations of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, focussing on British victims and any offences that may have been committed in the country.
The SFO said on Thursday in a statement that the decision to investigate came after it was given an interim report by Grant Thornton, provisional liquidators in the UK.
It added it will liaise closely with counterparts in the U.S. and with City of London Police and will ask ex-employees for help.
Madoff, who is under house arrest in his luxury Manhattan apartment, was charged last month with securities fraud in what U.S. authorities say was an investment scam that may have lost clients as much as $50 billion (32 billion pounds).
(Reporting by Laurence Fletcher and Steve Slater; editing by John Stonestreet)
