Prosecutor claims Madoff aides were bribed with gifts to go along with $17.5 B Ponzi scheme

Prior to deliberations expected to happen today at the earliest, a prosecutor told a federal court in Manhattan today that Bernard Madoff's $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme would have fallen apart if not for his expensive gifts he has given to his former aides, Bloomberg said. Assistant US Attorney Randall Jackson said yesterday that the defendants, which include Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi, had played along to the scheme until the time that they all realized that the trading in Madoff's investment advisory business was a sham.

"Children always figure it out (after they start asking how Santa could) visit billions of houses in one night (and make so many toys in one year). Let's talk about the absurdity of the fundamental premise (that the defendants) engaged in all these activities (and didn't figure it out)." Jackson said, likening the situation to children's discovery that Santa Claus was a myth.

The criminall trial against Madoff's former aides would be the first that was spurred from Madoff's scheme, which collapsed after he was arrested in December of 2008, Bloomberg said. US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who oversees the trial, had stated that deliberations by the jury could begin today.

Bongiorno, Crupi, George Perez, Jerome O'Hara and Daniel Bonventre are facing a 31-count indictment for helping their former boss to carry out his scheme by conspiring to use fake documents to certify their businesses in the biggest companies in the world to convince investors to invest in the scam. Lawyers for the defendants believed that the US government does not have enough proof to convince the jury that the five were guilty of the charges as they claim that the evidence presented in court were speculative and that witnesses used against them have all lied to avoid more jail time. Moreover, defense lawyers claimed that the US government is out to punish people close to Madoff.

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Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Madoff Ponzi Scheme, Madoff aide Ponzi scheme verdict

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