Madoff investors find accounts offer no protection

Some Madoff investors said receiving quarterly statements from Fiserv gave them false security.

Moskowitz, the retired dentist, said he opened his account with a Fiserv predecessor at the direction of two accountants who, it turned out, were funneling money to Madoff. In 1992, the SEC shut down the operation run by the men, Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes. But Moskowitz left his money with Madoff, administered by the same IRA trustee. When he called Madoff's office a few years ago and asked to switch trustees, he said a broker told him that the money manager would only do business with Retirement Accounts, which had been acquired by Fiserv.

Fiserv sold most of its investment support services business to TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., in a deal announced in 2007. The remainder — which manages individual retirement accounts — is to be sold to a group of investors, pending federal approval, the company said.

That business remains in Denver. In early February, a trustee filed a list of Madoff's clients with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York stretching to more than 13,000 entries. Of those, about 800 are listed as accounts managed by NTC & Co., whose post office box and address are shared with Fiserv.