The case centered around whether or not the
employees had committed securities fraud and other deceptive acts to
knowingly mislead auditors and investors in Madoff Securities. The trial
in the United States District Court in Manhattan went on for more than
five months, making it one of the longest white-collar trials in recent
memory.
Federal prosecutors made a case that two
computer engineers, Jerome O’Hara and George Perez, helped Mr. Madoff
pull off an enormous Ponzi scheme by knowingly creating computer
programs that could create fake trades and records.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Carlo Allegri/Reuters
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Prosecutors also alleged that Mr. Madoff’s
portfolio managers Joann Crupi and Annette Bongiorno as well as the
firm’s operations director, Daniel Bonventre, conspired in various ways
to lie to customers, cheat on taxes and falsify records at Madoff
Securities.
“These convictions, along with the prior
guilty pleas of nine other defendants, demonstrate what we have believed
from the earliest stages of the investigation: this largest-ever Ponzi
scheme could not have been the work of one person,” said Preet Bharara,
the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office brought the case.
“The trial established that the Madoff fraud began at least as far back
as the early 1970s, decades before it came to light,” he said. “These
defendants each played an important role in carrying out the charade,
propping it up, and concealing it from regulators, auditors, taxing
authorities, lenders, and investors.”
While lawyers for the defense claimed that
their clients did not knowingly participate in any of the deception,
prosecutors made the case that the defendants were well aware of the
fraud taking place at Mr. Madoff’s firm. That included the knowledge,
for example, that Mr. Madoff’s firm was providing a “second set of books
and records” to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The prosecution’s case centered around the testimony of Frank DiPascali, Mr. Madoff’s right-hand man who pleaded guilty in 2009. Mr. DiPascali has been cooperating with federal prosecutors in a bid for a more lenient sentence. He is currently facing up to 125 years in prison. Lawyers for the five former employees had argued that Mr. DiPascali’s self-interest undermined his credibility.
The prosecution’s case centered around the testimony of Frank DiPascali, Mr. Madoff’s right-hand man who pleaded guilty in 2009. Mr. DiPascali has been cooperating with federal prosecutors in a bid for a more lenient sentence. He is currently facing up to 125 years in prison. Lawyers for the five former employees had argued that Mr. DiPascali’s self-interest undermined his credibility.
Madoff Securities collapsed in 2008 after Mr. Madoff confessed to the Ponzi scheme. He is currently serving 150 years in prison.
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