Columbia says it lost $3 million tied to Madoff

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Columbia University said on Wednesday it had uncovered $3 million in losses tied to accused swindler Bernard Madoff, joining other New York universities hit by the purported fraud.

Columbia spokesman Robert Hornsby confirmed the losses, but declined to provide further details beyond saying that information in a Bloomberg News story on the losses was accurate.

Bloomberg reported that the school discovered the losses in a review of its investments. The news service said the money was tied to a 1980 gift to Columbia's law school from an unnamed alumnus who had retained the right to decide how the funds would be invested.

Madoff, who has been charged with one of the biggest frauds in Wall Street history, is under house arrest in his Manhattan penthouse.

Madoff's lawyers have said he is cooperating with the government investigations following his December 11 arrest for what would be the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. A Ponzi scheme is a swindle in which early investors are paid with money taken in from new clients.

Other universities including Bard College, New York University, New York Law School and Yeshiva University, as well as Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, have disclosed losses linked to Madoff.

(Reporting by Edith Honan)