WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. — Attorneys representing nearly 1,000 investors allegedly defrauded in a decades-long Ponzi scheme in Madison County have filed a class-action lawsuit against Berkshire Bank, accusing the lender of enabling the scam.
The complaint, lodged Sept. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, claims the bank’s Oriskany Falls branch ignored repeated red flags and warnings about customer Miles B. Marshall, who is accused of orchestrating the scheme, according to news reports.
The lawsuit contends Berkshire not only knew of Marshall’s activities but also profited from his accounts while taking steps that allowed the fraud to continue, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in investor losses.
“Banks have incredibly sophisticated fraud detection systems that alert them almost immediately to any suspected fraudulent behavior. Berkshire Bank had those systems in place, and we know that those systems work. We know that over a six-year span, Marshall’s accounts generated dozens of alerts,” said attorney Daniel Centner of the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, headquartered in New Orleans, Broker Watch reported.
Marshall, 74, was indicted in June on 49 counts of securities fraud and grand larceny, accused by the New York Attorney General’s Office of stealing more than $50 million from 988 investors over several decades. He is scheduled to appear in Madison County Court on Sept. 15, Broker Watch said.
According to the prosecutors, Marshall solicited unsuspecting clients to invest millions of dollars into his so-called “Eight Percent Fund” over the course of three decades, claiming that their funds would be primarily used for real property investments. Instead, Marshall allegedly used funds to pay investment returns to prior investors, as well as to pay his personal expenses and the expenses of his other businesses, Broker Watch said.
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Source: CUtoday September 15 2025
