British authorities consider who to charge in Madoff case

— -- British authorities investigating Bernard Madoff's massive fraud expect to decide within months whether to file criminal charges against others in the scam, investigators said Friday.

The convicted financier's London-based trading business, Madoff Securities International, functioned as "a cog in the giant washing machine" at the heart of the scam, the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office said.

Additionally, Madoff's wife, Ruth, received $2 million from the London business in late November, weeks before the disgraced financier's Dec. 11 arrest, says David Jones, a Serious Fraud Office spokesman.

"The purpose of our investigation is to establish whether any of the persons involved in the U.K. end of the operation are in some way implicated into the fraud perpetrated by Mr. Madoff," said Jones. "We do feel that we will be able to be in a position this year to identify whether there is a case to bring a criminal prosecution here in the courts in England."

Peter Chavkin, an attorney representing Ruth Madoff, declined to discuss the transfer of money. Ira Lee Sorkin, Bernard Madoff's lead defense counsel, declined to comment as did Janice Oh, a spokeswoman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin.

The British investigation, opened in January, focuses on hundreds of millions of dollars in transfers between financial accounts for the London business, now undergoing court liquidation in London, and those for Madoff's investment headquarters in New York.

Stockholders of the London business included Madoff, his wife and his brother, Peter, who was in charge of Madoff's New York-based business that matches stock buyers with sellers.

Until the scam collapsed, directors of the London operation included both Madoff brothers, as well as Bernard Madoff's two sons, Andrew and Mark. The younger Madoffs also worked in the New York stock buyer-and-seller matching business.

Bernard Madoff's March 12 guilty plea to an 11-count criminal information included an international money-laundering charge that covered financial transfers between his offices on opposite sides of the Atlantic.