A HIGH Court judge has permitted the Irish arm of European banking giant HBSC to refrain from specifying — at this stage — the capacity in which hundreds of millions of investment monies were passed on by it to companies controlled by US fraudster Bernard Madoff.

A HIGH Court judge has made rulings aimed at a cost-effective and speedy resolution of a raft of legal actions brought here after more than one billion dollars of investor monies entrusted to the Irish arm of European banking giant HSBC ended up with now jailed US billion-dollar fraudster Bernard Madoff and his companies.

THE US trustee handling the liquidation of the business of alleged $65 billion (e50bn) fraudster Bernard Madoff has told the High Court he has decided not to participate “at this stage” in court proceedings here.