NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bernard Madoff's financial records were "utterly unreliable" and will take six months to sort out, said Stephen Harbeck, president of the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

"There are some assets, but I have no idea what the relationships of the assets available are to the claims against them," Harbeck said on Bloomberg Television. "The records are utterly unreliable on this case."

His comments came as Bank Medici AG of Austria became the latest lender to reveal a loss from Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud. Two funds at the Viennese bank, 75 percent owned by chairman Sonja Kohn, invested $2.1 billion entirely in Madoff's firm, the bank said yesterday. It joined institutions and wealthy individuals from Tokyo to Paris. New York's Yeshiva University said it lost $110 million, mostly through hedge funds controlled by trustee J. Ezra Merkin.

US Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, meantime, told the Securities and Exchange Commission to explain how it failed to detect the "giant Ponzi scheme".

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, "is seeking more information from the SEC about this case", Kate Szostak, the senator's spokeswoman, said in a statement late yesterday. "Senator Dodd is concerned not only about the people caught up in this reported scheme who may have been misled, but how such a massive fraud could have gone undetected."

Madoff, 70, was arrested on December 11 after he told his sons that Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was a "giant Ponzi scheme", the SEC said. Madoff was yesterday given an additional day to meet bail conditions. He had until yesterday at 2 p.m. for three additional people to co-sign his $10 million bond, which he and his wife had guaranteed.

The SEC hadn't inspected Madoff's investment advisory business since he registered the firm with the agency in September 2006, two people familiar with the matter said. The SEC tries to inspect advisers at least every five years and to scrutinise new firms in their first year of registration, former agency officials and securities lawyers said.

The SIPC, which is liquidating Madoff's firm, found "two sets of books, in complete disarray", Harbeck said. Clients facing losses range from a Fairfield, Connecticut, pension fund to hedge funds and New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon's Sterling Equities Inc.

SEC examiners reviewed Madoff's brokerage business in 2005 after an investment manager, writing to the agency, and press reports questioned the validity of his investment returns. The SEC's enforcement division completed an investigation involving the company last year without bringing a claim.

Madoff's brother, Peter Madoff, was today subpoenaed by Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, according to a copy of a court filing. Peter Madoff was chief compliance officer at Madoff's firm, the filing said. Galvin is also seeking documents from Marcia Beth Cohn, chief compliance officer of Cohmad Securities Corp., located at the same address as Madoff's firm, the filing said.

Galvin became involved after Tremont Group Holdings Inc., a hedge-fund firm owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., revealed that it had $3.3 billion invested with Madoff. The investment amounted to more than half Tremont's total assets, a person familiar with the matter said.

The SEC was already under fire before Madoff's alleged fraud came to light. The collapses of investment banks Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. this year tarnished the SEC's reputation and lawmakers such as Dodd and Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, have questioned its vigilance in enforcing securities laws.

"We share the Senator's interest in determining how this massive fraud was perpetrated," said SEC spokesman John Nester. "We are acutely focused on pursuing the investigation, protecting customer assets and holding wrongdoers accountable."

Separately, Madoff made $182,250 in campaign donations since 1993 to federal candidates, the political parties, and securities industry's political action committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He gave $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, including $25,000 in September. He contributed to both Democratic and Republican members of Congress.