Northern Trust has been hit with an elder financial abuse lawsuit seeking at least $35 million in damages, claiming that its former vice president stole millions from a $20 million legacy trust.
The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges unauthorized transfers and credit card payments over more than a decade. The plaintiff is a trust beneficiary whose family founded Security Trust Co., which was acquired by Northern Trust in 1971.
"This case is about how Northern Trust, acting through its Vice President, stole millions of dollars over several years from the elderly granddaughter of the founder of its Florida operations," the suit states.
"While marketing itself as a guardian of assets for wealthy families nationwide," the suit continues, it empowered Christopher Walters, a vice president and senior fiduciary relationship advisor, "over at least a ten-year period to steal millions of dollars from Elizabeth Madden," a woman in her 80s who had appointed the firm as co-trustee to the legacy trust.
Last August, Northern Trust sued Walters, alleging that he stole money from a longtime client, circumventing security safeguards and concealing his misconduct from the company.
The firm, which has $1.7 trillion in assets under management, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in Miami accusing Walters of "blatant fraud" and breach of fiduciary duty. Walters repeatedly lied to the client and to Northern Trust, the firm alleged in August, saying the defendant abused his role and breached his fiduciary duty to the client and the firm.
A Northern Trust spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor Wednesday that "in August 2025, we initiated litigation against the former employee to hold him accountable for his wrongdoing. Consistent with our commitment to acting in the best interest of our clients, we tendered payment to the impacted clients for the full amount of the stolen funds, plus associated lost opportunity costs. While we are disappointed by this latest legal action, we are confident in the facts of the matter and will respond through the appropriate legal channels."
The lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that there are other Northern Trust victims.
Madden's lawsuit cites her older brother, Robert Ludwig, Jr., who died in 2012 at the age of 74. "Walters was also Bobby Ludwig's relationship manager, from around 2004 to the time of his death in 2012," the lawsuit states, adding that Walters "stole from the elderly, ailing Bobby Ludwig, an aging alcoholic who suffered from paralysis, stroke, and severe Alzheimer's disease and for many years was confined to a wheelchair."
Walters "had almost unfettered access to the late and vulnerable Bobby Ludwig's account," the suit states.
The suit accuses Northern Trust of failing to implement proper controls while collecting millions in fees from the trust, attempting to manipulate the signing of liability waivers and violating both Florida trust laws and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act through its mishandling of trust assets.
Trust Assets Used to Fund a Failed Gym
A former personal trainer, Walters used stolen trust assets "to fund failed business ventures such as his failed gym, to make monthly rental payments on his failed gym, to satisfy personal credit card debts, and to support his lifestyle, all while acting under Northern Trust's authority," the lawsuit states.
The suit contends that Walters sent daily emails and texts to Madden, ingratiating himself with her. "He texted Mrs. Madden obsessively to the point she became a victim of his abuse," according to the suit.
Walters "even created what he called 'girl time,' during which he scheduled hour-long calls with Mrs. Madden to insincerely ask about her well being, inquire about her family life, and cultivate a contrived personal bond with her," according to the suit.
The suit goes on to state that Walters exploited "Northern Trust's ill-conceived process for seeking approval for disbursements from a trust; rather than requiring a process whereby a local fiduciary officer must approve disbursements from the Trust," Walters took advantage of Northern Trust's flawed and inadequate system in which such approvals were handled through back office personnel outside of Florida, and in which it was likely that a different person would receive each request for approval."
New Firm Finds Fraud
In the fall of 2024, Walters was told by Northern Trust that his position had been eliminated and offered him "a one-year salary package, contingent upon him signing a release," the suit continues. "It is unclear whether Vice President Walters signed the release."
Following his departure from Northern Trust, Walters continued his daily communications with Madden until December 2024, "when she, not Northern Trust, discovered that Vice President Walters had failed to make charitable contributions from her trust as she had requested earlier in the year, which caused tax implications for her," according to the suit.
In January 2025, Madden decided to move her trust to another financial institution.
In February 2025, "during the routine on boarding of Mrs. Madden to the new institution, the theft, fraud and other illicit behavior which occurred at Northern Trust over a period of more than a decade was discovered by an employee of the new institution," the suit states.
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