Court awards US$21.9 payout from Holocaust fund

Fourteen relatives of two victims of the Holocaust were awarded US$21.9 million by a federal judge yesterday in the largest payout so far in a long-running case against Swiss banks.

The payment was awarded by United States District Court Judge Edward Korman as part of a US$1.25 billion 1998 settlement given to Holocaust survivors and their families, who accused Swiss banks of handing over to the Nazis hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Jewish holdings.

The Swiss banks have released the names of thousands of accounts from the Holocaust era and have so far made payments totalling US$254 million.