Bermuda-based Kingate Management Ltd., which invested around $1.7 billion with jailed fraudster Bernard Madoff, is coming under scrutiny again from the liquidator of Madoff's company.

Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee in the bankruptcy of Bernard L Madoff Securities LLC, has asked a London judge to order London-based investment firm FIM Advisers to produce its documents related to Madoff investments.

FIM, which has offices on Front Street adjacent to Kingate's, has connections with the Bermuda company. Mr. Picard seeks to find out more about the nature of the two companies' business relationship, as it applies to their investments of their clients' funds with Madoff.

Mr. Picard wants to determine whether he may have a claim against FIM, the trustee's lawyer Robin Dicker said at a hearing in London yesterday, according to Bloomberg News.

Mr. Picard is also seeking information on who ran Kingate and whether they knew of Madoff's fraud, Mr. Dicker said.

"These documents are likely to shed light" on Madoff's business "effectively summarising how Kingate and FIM Advisers operated and what they should or should not have known," Mr. Dicker said. Mr. Picard "wants to investigate whether he has a claim, powder and shot, against Kingate Management and those behind it."

Antony Zacaroli, a lawyer for FIM Advisers, said the firm is not opposed to providing documents and has already provided some. It is seeking to prevent unrelated, confidential documents from being handed over, he said.

FIM is run by Carlo Grosso and Federico Ceretti, who are also defendants in Picard's suit. The Kingate Global and Kingate Euro funds, collected annual fees of 1.5 percent of assets, Mr. Dicker said. Both are in liquidation in the British Virgin Islands, where the funds are registered.

In April last year, Mr. Picard sued Kingate Management for the return of $255 million transferred to it shortly before Madoff's investment company's collapse.

According to media reports, Britain's Serious Fraud Office has been probing the role of FIM in the Kingate funds.