NEW YORK (Bloomberg) - PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) Bermuda member firm asked a US judge to dismiss a group lawsuit accusing the auditor of failing to uncover Bernard Madoff's fraud during meetings with the financier in 2004 and 2006.

The suit by investors in two Banco Santander SA funds that lost about $3.2 billion in Madoff's fraud does not establish jurisdiction over the Hamilton, Bermuda-based firm or prove it was responsible for uncovering the fraud, the auditor said on Thursday in a filing in federal court in Miami.

The suit, filed in January of 2009, was amended with a "shotgun approach" to add PricewaterhouseCoopers' US and Bermuda units, the auditor said in a request to be removed as a defendant in the case. The suit names Banco Santander, Spain's biggest bank, and two Irish units of HSBC Holdings plc. that acted as custodian for the Santander funds that invested with Madoff.

The Santander investors "have failed to allege sufficient facts to show that PwC Bermuda owed plaintiffs any duty of care, or that plaintiffs relied on any representations of conduct by PwC Bermuda", the auditor said in the filing.

Santander is accused in the lawsuit of failing to protect investors in funds managed by its Geneva-based Optimal Investment Services unit after discovering in 2002 that Madoff deviated from industry standards by acting as custodian of his own funds. Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty in March and is serving a 150-year sentence.