Almost five years after Bernie Madoff was arrested for fraud, some of his former employees are about to go on trial in New York. The case is expected to focus on how much the employees knew about Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Nearly five years after Bernie Madoff was arrested for fraud, some of his former employees are about to go on trial in New York. The trial is expected to focus on how much the employees knew about Madoff’s multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme. Jury selections gets under way today.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR’s Jim Zarroli reports.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: The five former Madoff employees all had lucrative jobs at Madoff’s firm. For instance, Daniel Bonventre was director of operations in the back office, while Joanne Crupi and Annette Bongiorno managed client accounts. All five have pleaded not guilty and maintain they didn’t know about the fraud taking place at the firm. And Madoff himself has backed them up in interviews from the federal prison in North Carolina where he now lives. But a lot of people are skeptical about that.
Ron Stein is president of the Network for Investor Action and Protection, which represents Madoff victims. He says many of them have trouble understanding how Madoff could have pulled off such a complex scheme by himself.
More on NPR here.
