By Laurence Fletcher
LONDON (Reuters) - Disgraced U.S. financier Bernard Madoff moved nearly $160 million of his own assets to his UK-based firm in 2007, according to company accounts and filings obtained by Reuters.
Madoff, who is accused by U.S. authorities of running a Ponzi scheme for many years in a fraud worth as much as $50 billion, moved the assets via the allotment of two sets of new shares in Madoff Securities International Limited, a UK firm he controlled.
On Thursday Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it had begun investigating Madoff's UK operations, focusing on UK victims and any offences that may have been committed in the country.
