The latest victim of Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme is a Web site. Banco Santander, Spain’s biggest bank, has taken down the homepage of its Optimal Investment Services business, after the hedge fund group told investors it had lost more than one-third of its assets in the Madoff scandal.

Whereas earlier this week the Optimal Web site [1] trumpeted the firm’s “intensive due diligence,” yesterday it merely said, “New website to be launched soon.”

Optimal, which managed US$10 billion in assets at the end of last year, has $3.5 billion of exposure to Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. The firm invested assets of its Optimal Strategic US Equity Fund with Madoff.

• MORE ON THE MADOFF SCANDAL [1]