Prosecutors, defense spar over $150 billion forfeiture for Madoff aides

Four months after five former Bernard Madoff aides were convicted of helping conceal his massive Ponzi scheme, their lawyers and U.S. prosecutors are still fighting over the trial’s key question: What did they know, and when did they know it? Prosecutors are seeking more than $150 billion in criminal forfeiture from the longtime employees of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities: back-office director Daniel Bonventre, portfolio managers Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi and computer programmers Jerome O’Hara and George Perez. At a court hearing on Tuesday in New York federal court, the government argued the defendants are responsible for every dollar of investor money that came to the firm after they started working there, because they should have known the money could be lost as a result of the scheme. More on Reuters here.