J. Ezra Merkin, a prominent New York financier and philanthropist, was never the savvy

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investor he seemed to be — even before he steered more than $2 billion of his clients’ money into Bernard L.

Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, according to a civil lawsuit.

The complaint, filed Monday by the New York State attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, accused Mr. Merkin of lying to clients about Mr. Madoff’s dominant role in his hedge fund and improperly collecting more than $470 million in fees — fees that dwarfed his personal losses in the Madoff fraud — for simply handing his clients’ money to Mr.

Madoff.

The complaint did not accuse Mr.

Merkin of knowing about Mr. Madoff’s vast fraud. It charged that he had failed to carry out the diligent research and investigation he had promised and in some cases had deliberately deceived clients about his investments with Mr.

Madoff, beginning in 1992.

Moreover, it accused him of having misled his clients for nearly a decade before that by surreptitiously relying on another money manager to run his hedge funds, even after the manager had been jailed for insider trading.

Mr. Merkin’s ‘‘deceit, recklessness and breaches of fiduciary duty have resulted in the loss of approximately $2.4 billion,’’ according to the complaint filed by Mr. Cuomo’s office, which opened an investigation of Mr. Merkin soon after the Mr. Madoff was arrested in mid- December.

A lawyer for Mr. Merkin, Andrew J.

Levander, called the complaint ‘‘hasty and ill conceived,’’ and said Mr. Merkin would vigorously defend himself.

‘‘The evidence shows that this lawsuit is without merit,’’ Mr. Levander said, adding that investors had agreed that Mr. Merkin could use other money managers.

‘‘Mr.Merkin performed extensive due diligence on Madoff and his trading strategy,’’ he continued. ‘‘Unfortunately, Mr. Merkin’s due diligence, just like the detailed investigations performed by countless others, including regulators, was thwarted by the intricate, fraudulent scheme perpetrated by Madoff.’’ Mr. Merkin agreed Monday to an asset freeze, subject to the approval of the courts.

The accusations echo charges that have already been made against Mr.

Merkin in private lawsuits filed by some charities and institutions, including New York University and a charitable foundation established by Mortimer B.

Zuckerman, the publisher and real estate executive.

Mr. Zuckerman also sued Mr. Merkin on Monday, saying that he and his personal foundation had lost a total of $40 million in the fraud scheme. The lawsuit said that Mr. Merkin had hidden Mr.

Madoff’s role and failed to exercise reasonable care in selecting money managers and overseeing their work.

‘‘I invested with Ezra Merkin,’’ Mr.

Zuckerman said during an interview Monday. ‘‘I never heard ofMr.Madoff; I never heard his name.’’ Mr. Levander, the lawyer for Mr. Merkin, said Mr. Zuckerman’s complaints were ‘‘entirely baseless and without merit.’’ The lawsuits are the latest aimed at so-called Madoff feeder-fund managers.

Massachusetts regulators last week sued the Fairfield Greenwich Group, one of the earliest such funds, saying it had repeatedly misled investors about how diligently it checked out Mr.

Madoff’s operations.

The office of Mr. Cuomo, the New York attorney general, went a step further, focusing not just on Mr. Merkin’s dealings with Mr. Madoff but also on his broader track record as an investment manager. Specifically, it accused Mr.

Merkin of improperly commingling his personal funds with his hedge fund accounts and using some of the money to buy artwork worth more than $91 million for his apartment.

The complaint also detailed his relationship, dating from 1985, with a money manager named Victor Teicher, who specialized in merger-related investments.

Mr. Teicher was indicted for insider trading in 1988, convicted in 1990, denied an appeal in 1993 and jailed for a year, starting in 1994.

According to the complaint, it was Mr.

Teicher, not Mr. Merkin, who actually managed Mr. Merkin’s two best-known hedge funds, the Ariel fund and Gabriel Capital, from 1988 until at least 1998.

Mr. Merkin, the complaint said, ‘‘occupied himself primarily with raising money for the funds using his extensive social and professional network.’’ Exhibits filed with the Cuomo complaint on Monday included transcripts of extensive interviews with Mr. Merkin, in which he was questioned about his relationship with Mr. Madoff, whom he said he had met in ‘‘the very late ’80s, maybe 1990.’’ They also include several e-mail messages Mr. Merkin received from Mr.

Teicher immediately after Mr. Madoff was arrested. One of them said, ‘‘The Madoff news is hilarious; hope you negotiate out of this mess as well as possible.’’ It continued, ‘‘Unfortunately, you’ve paid a big price for a lesson on the cost of being greedy.’’ Mr. Madoff, who has pleaded guilty to defrauding clients of $65 billion they believed they had in their accounts with him, is in jail awaiting sentencing.

Mr. Merkin’s three investment funds — Ascot Partners, Ariel and Gabriel — had been either fully or partly invested with Mr. Madoff since 1990, according to the complaint. It claimed the Ascot fund was formed in 1992 ‘‘for the sole, but undisclosed, purpose of serving as a feeder to Madoff.’’ The Ariel fund is not related to Ariel Investments of Chicago.

Through its civil complaint, Mr.

Cuomo’s office is seeking restitution and unspecified damages from Mr. Merkin, whose family has long been prominent in finance and philanthropy in NewYork.