(Reuters) - The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's investment firm has sued UBS AG and other entities for more than $2 billion, accusing them of collaborating in Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme.

The Swiss bank was accused of actively assisting Madoff's fraud by sponsoring international feeder funds that sent client money to the swindler, lending "an aura of legitimacy" to their activities.

Despite being well aware of red flags at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the defendants "chose to enable Madoff's fraud for their own gain," Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee, said in a complaint alleging 23 counts of fraudulent transfers and other misconduct.

Picard said he filed the 107-page complaint under seal with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Tuesday. He made an edited version available to the public on Wednesday.

"Madoff's scheme could not have been accomplished unless UBS had agreed not only to look the other way, but also to pretend that they were truly ensuring the existence of assets and trades when in fact they were not and never did," David Sheehan, a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP representing Picard, said in a statement. Picard is a partner at that firm.

UBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The other defendants either did not immediately return calls or could not immediately be reached.

Picard has filed at least 20 lawsuits to recover more than $17.5 billion from feeder funds that steered money to Madoff's firm, friends, family members and others.

Defendants in the UBS case include people affiliated with Access International Advisors LLC.

That firm was once led by Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, a French executive found dead in an apparent suicide in New York in December 2008, less than two weeks after Madoff's fraud was uncovered. He was reported to have been distraught over losing up to $1.4 billion of client money.

Other defendants include Luxalpha SICAV, which has offices in Luxembourg, and Groupement Financier Ltd, with offices in the British Virgin Islands.

The complaint said these firms withdrew $796 million in the 90 days before Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC went bankrupt, and $1.12 billion in the prior six years.

According the complaint, the various defendants appear to have made at least $80 million in fees from the scheme.

Madoff, 72, is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison.

The case is Picard v. UBS AG et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-ap-04285.

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