Seattle - Nearly seven years after Bernie Madoff's investment empire was revealed to be a $17.5 billion fraud, the battle by investors to recover their losses ramps up in a case that goes to trial this week in Seattle.
A Washington state investment company is seeking to pin about $100 million of its losses from Madoff's crimes on auditor Ernst & Young.
FutureSelect Portfolio Management of Redmond lost a total of about $129 million in the pyramid scheme. In King County Superior Court papers, the company alleges that Ernst & Young would have uncovered the scheme if it had taken even the most basic steps to verify Madoff's assets - something the auditing firm denies it had any obligation to do.
Ernst & Young said it had a very limited role with regard to FutureSelect's investments.
Jury selection in the case starts Monday.
AP