Peter Madoff stonewalls London court

Jailed Ponzi scheme accomplice Peter Madoff stonewalled London's high court Wednesday, refusing to answer dozens of questions in testimony given by video link. The Financial Times reported Madoff, the brother of Bernard Madoff, who was given a 150-year sentence in the United States for orchestrating the Ponzi scheme that lost billions of dollars, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 50 times in questioning that lasted about an hour. Peter Madoff, 67, is serving a 10-year sentence for abetting his brother in the massive investment fraud. He was called Wednesday as a witness for the liquidators of Madoff Securities International, which was Bernard Madoff's office in London, the Times said. Specifically, the accounting firm Grant Thorton, as the liquidator, is suing former MSI directors, including Stephen Raven, who was its chief executive officer, and Andrew Madoff, who is Bernard Madoff's son. Grant Thorton is attempting to recover about $50 million of victims' losses. But Madoff only answered innocuous questions. He said he was a trader for his brother's New York operation "at times." He also said he was "from time to time" involved in proprietary trading. More often that not, he refused to answer the questions put to him. One of the defendants, a former MSI director, is Philip Toop, who is defending himself in the case. "We the London defendants and your nephew are hoping to find salvage in the shipwreck ...?is there anything you can say to help us find that salvage?" Toop asked. Madoff invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to throw the defendant a bone.