It emerged last night that the Austrian Government may have to take control of Vienna-based Bank Medici.

This would make Bank Medici the first financial institution to collapse after its clients had lost money in funds invested with Mr Madoff. Out of a total of $3.6 billion (£2.5 billion) under management by the small private bank at the end of September, $2.1 billion was invested in funds ran by Mr Madoff. The bank did not return phone calls last night.

In the United States, a leading law firm is considering asking a court in New York to publish a list compiled by Bernard Madoff detailing the whereabouts of his assets. Pomerantz, a New York law firm that is seeking to sue hedge funds that channelled money to Mr Madoff, is actively considering applying to the Southern District Court of New York to make the list public, The Times has learnt.

The 70-year-old financier has been ordered by the court to draw up a detailed list of all investments, assets, loans, lines of credit and accounts held by his company and deliver it to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by today.

Under a court order issued by Louis Stanton, a US District Judge, on December 18, Mr Madoff must supply the list and also include all assets held by the financier for his “direct or indirect benefit”. Mr Madoff’s foreign operations — such as the now-closed office off Berkeley Square in Central London — have until January 26 to compile and hand over their own lists.

Speaking to The Times yesterday, Marc Gross, a partner in Pomerantz, said that his firm was considering whether to try to make the list public to help it to bring a class-action lawsuit against so-called feeder funds.

Pomerantz is one of several law firms planning class-action cases against Mr Madoff and the feeder funds that supplied him with clients and their capital. Four cases have already been filed in the three weeks since Mr Madoff allegedly confessed to creating what is believed to be the world’s biggest fraud.

Once the SEC obtains the list from Mr Madoff, it is expected that the Wall Street regulator will start to try to repatriate assets held outside the United States. The SEC will also start the process of reviewing the data’s completeness. Mr Madoff is under 24-hour house arrest at his flat on East 64th Street in the Upper East Side area of Manhattan while the FBI and the SEC seek to construct criminal cases against him.

The emergence of what is believed to be the world’s biggest fraud, scamming investors worldwide of $50 billion (£34 billion), has embarrassed the SEC and the FBI. According to Mr Madoff’s charge sheet, he told his sons on December 10 that his investment business was “just one big lie” and that he was “finished”. He is also alleged to have told his sons that he believed the firm had run up losses of about $50 billion. Within two days, Mr Madoff was arrested, charged with fraud and bailed.

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