London-based FIM Advisers, currently facing legal action from investors who lost money in the Madoff fraud, is to cease operations, Reuters reports. The firm, headed by Carlo Grosso and Federico Ceretti, was consultant to the manager of the Kingate funds, among the most significant feeder funds into Madoff.

FIM Advisers "will cease activities within the foreseeable future", according to its most recent accounts, the agency reports.

According to these accounts, the embattled firm will "vigorously defend" a US class action, a claim by Madoff trustee Irving Picard and a claim in Bermuda by the liquidator of the Kingate funds.

Though no longer managing money, FIM Advisers may continue in existence as it waits for the outcome of the lawsuits, which it expects to take at least a year, it said in the accounts. Grosso and Ceretti will pay legal costs in the meantime, it said.

As reported in WealthBriefing, a group of senior executives left FIM Advisers in December last year to set up Genii Solutions.