Another law suit - this one in Shelby County, Alabama - has been filed against the Bank of Bermuda Ltd. in relation to a scheme that collapsed in 1999 with $300 million of debts.

According to the latest edition of Inside Bermuda, 170 plaintiffs from around the United States filed the suit in relation to the Cash 4 Titles Ponzi scheme, alleging fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and violation of the securities acts of several states.

The scheme was the brainchild of Michael Gause and Charles Horner and promised investors returns of 24 to 60 percent annually, to be earned by offering short-term, high-interest loans. In reality, it was a Ponzi scheme that used the investments of new investors to pay off old ones, leaving the newcomers with little or nothing. Gause and Horner also spent much of the money on themselves.

The Bank of Bermuda is accused of handling the scheme's funds - $150 million is alleged to have passed through the Cayman branch - and actively promoting it. Three bank employees on the Caribbean island were fired after an internal investigation.

In this suit, the Bank and its Cayman Island subsidiary were named as defendants along with several American firms.

On June 11, one of those firms, Troutman & Sanders LLP, filed a petition to move the action to the US District Court for Northern Alabama, according to inside Bermuda.

The Bank of Bermuda (Cayman) is also one of several defendants in a class action law suit filed in the US District Court for Southern Florida in February, while the Bank and two Cayman subsidiaries are also defendants in an action filed last September in the US District Court for Northern Illinois.