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U.K. court frees Madoff data for extradition; U.S. court freezes Madoff brother's dough

By Ward Harkavy in Featured, Madoff
Friday, Mar. 27 2009 @ 8:20AM
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On the heels of yesterday's news that Brooklyn Law School student Andrew Ross Samuels won a court order to freeze Peter Madoff's assets, brother Bernie Madoff lost yet another court battle, this one in the U.K.

In "Madoff data can be extradited back to US," the Register (U.K.) reports:

Data which is protected by the Data Protection Act can be transferred to the US to help in the investigation of companies run by Bernard Madoff, the High Court has said. The transfer would usually be barred but is justified in this case, the Court said.

By the way, this is yet another indication that other countries have no faith in the U.S. — in this case, it's a matter of little faith in our federal, state, and local governments' protection of electronic data.

As the Register explains British law:

The Data Protection Act (DPA) forbids the export of personal data to countries where privacy protection is poor. Data cannot be sent outside of the European Economic Area except to countries which are deemed to have 'adequate' data protection. The US is not one of those countries.

But at least the U.S. is one of those countries in which a guy who isn't even out of law school can freeze someone's considerable assets.

Peter Madoff has not been charged with any wrongdoing in brother Bernie's Ponzi scheme, but Peter got served nonetheless. After all, he was the "chief compliance officer" of Bernie's firm, and he seems to have been a particularly compliant one.

One sure bet: When student Samuels finishes law school, he's got some great material for his resume.