Nomura looks like a place that does not do enough due diligence.
Bloomberg: Nomura Has 27.5 Billion Yen at Risk Linked to Madoff (Update2)
Reuters: Nomura says has $303 mln Madoff-related exposure
Associated Press: Nomura: $306 million in Wall Street Ponzi scheme
AFP: Nomura says it could lose 302 mln dollars in Madoff scandal
Still relatively small compared to some of the European banks, though, where the losses are in billions of dollars rather than yen.
To be fair, no amount of due diligence would have been enough on Madoff – the lack of transparency was such that you either took a view on the guy and invested, or you didn’t. In Nomura’s case I think it’s less of a quantity of due diligence issue (god knows, Japanese investors never suffer from a lack of quantity in their process), and more of an issue of quality of due diligence.
In the interests of full disclosure, I met with Madoff back in 2001. I left the meeting with less idea about how he made money that I had when I went in. I passed that one up, which of course makes me look oh so clever now – but equally I remember other funds I looked at where I couldn’t get comfortable that turned out to be legit and very good. Sometimes I’d rather be lucky than smart.