Bernard Madoff ordered his UK company to transfer about £100m to his US firm just weeks before he allegedly confessed to running a $50bn fraud scheme, two former employees of Madoff Securities International said.

Mr Madoff, who chaired the UK firm and owned 89 per cent of it, called the office in London’s West End on November 12 and told employees that he was nervous about sterling and wanted to move £100m ($150m) of the firm’s capital from gilts into US Treasury bonds, one source said.