Some Compensation

Canonica has said his clients have received nothing while other Geneva investment firms that invested with Madoff have been offered compensation. Notz Stucki & Cie in 2009 pledged to return as much as 120 million Swiss francs to customers and Union Bancaire Privee about $700 million the same year.

They are among at least seven firms in the region that lost as much as $7 billion in the fraudulent scheme that cost investors worldwide about $65 billion.

Charles Poncet, who represented the Aurelia executives when the charges were filed in 2009 and has since stepped back from the case, said the case is without merit.

“This is a ridiculous case brought by an overeager prosecutor who thinks that making a bad investment can be a crime,” he said in an interview.

Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, has recovered more than $9.8 billion, or 56 percent, of the $17 billion in claims, and distributed almost $6 billion of that. Picard is holding back about $4.3 billion because of ongoing appeals and related disputes.

Geneva Reputation

Madoff’s deception was a blow to Geneva’s reputation as a safe place to do business and the trials are an unwelcome reminder at a time when the city’s financial community has other challenges.

The fraud “was a shock as Geneva is very much old money, so credibility and prestige are very important,” said Stephane Garelli, a professor at IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland. “It was a bad moment for a lot of people in Geneva because they didn’t show very good judgment -- and today people will say ‘let’s turn the page, let’s forget about that, we have enough on our plate in future with banking secrecy and other things.”