The Los Angeles Times said that the former aides of $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme king Bernard Madoff has been convicted of conspiracy to aide the latter in duping investors of their money. The verdict delivered on Monday capped a six-month trial were prosecutors attempted to prove that the five, who are Annette Bongiorno, Madoff's longtime secretary, Daniel Bonventre, his director of operations for investments, JoAnn Crupi, an account manager, and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers, knowingly aided Madoff by building an elaborate web of lies.
Madoff's scheme resulted to a loss of $20 billion, which was shouldered by clients. The LA Times said a court-appointed trustee was able to recoup much of the money by forcing early investors who received big payouts from Madoff to turn the excess money in.
The LA Times said the five were implicated by Madoff's former finance chief Frank DiPascali and five other insiders, who earlier had pleaded guilty to wrongdoing and agreed to cooperate with authorities.
DiPascali was used by defense lawyers, who The LA Times said, were hammering on an argument that their clients were manipulated by Madoff and others. DiPascali reportedly told the court during a cross-examination that he lied to the programmers to get them into working things he wanted them to do.
For their own defense, the court witnessed Bongiorno and Bonventre testifying on their own behalf. The LA Times said the two claimed that they were allegedly victims themselves of Madoff's ways and that they, too, invested in Madoff's business, thinking that the business was real.
The prosecutors, on the other hand, insisted that the five were necessary players for Madoff's massive scheme to work, and that they had knowingly carried out the scheme, especially when Madoff consistently enticed with with huge million-dollar bonuses and real estate properties.
The LA Times said that the mastermind, Madoff, is already serving his sentence in a North Carolina prison.
