Top former Merrill Lynch executives, including two former CEOs, invested in hedge funds that lost money with alleged fraudster Bernard Madoff, becoming the highest-level Wall Street victims of the scandal to date, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Former chief executives Daniel Tully and David Komansky and former investment-banking chief Barry Friedberg personally invested in the funds, set up by former Merrill brokerage chief John Steffens, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC collapsed after the 70-year-old Wall Street trader was arrested and charged on Dec 11 last year with securities fraud.