Tijuana resident Maria Akriby Valladolid entrusted $1 million of her money with the San Diego office of American Express Bank Ltd. She had been originally approached to do so by a former friend who was a new employee of the San Diego branch, according to a suit filed today (July 10) in Los Angeles Superior Court. American Express's operation told her it had carefully evaluated Fairfield Sentry Limited Fund. That's where her money went. Fairfield Sentry "was in fact managed by Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff," according to the suit. Later, American Express sold the affiliate to Standard Chartered PLC, an English financial company, which is also named in the complaint. Fairfield Sentry is a unit of Fairfield Greenwich Group. Before the discovery of Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme, Fairfield Greenwich had $14.1 billion in clients' money under management; half was with Madoff.

Other such suits have been filed against American Express Bank and Standard Chartered. Today's suit was filed by San Diego's Aguirre, Morris & Severson and Beverly Hills's Kiesel, Boucher & Larson.