HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest lender, withdrew a settlement offer with investors in a feeder fund that lost money in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme after a U.S. court dismissed the case. The individual investors in 2009 sued Thema International Fund Plc and 27 other defendants, including HSBC, Thema’s custodian bank, alleging the bank should have known of Madoff’s fraud. HSBC asked the court to dismiss the case in October, saying it should be heard in Ireland and Luxembourg. The court today found Ireland was a “more appropriate forum,” the London-based lender said in a statement today. More in Bloomberg Businessweek here.
