Normal tech support phone call: "Press 1 for help with e-mail. Press 2 to have your password reset."
Madoff tech support phone call: "Hello, how can I help you dummy up some trading records today?"
The investigation of Bernie Madoff's fraudulent financial empire is leading to more arrests. Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers employed by the Ponzi schemer, were arrested by the FBI on Friday morning. The charges include conspiracy for falsifying books and records. They are accused of doing the deed for the boss and accepting hush money -- in the form of 25% raises and net bonuses of $60,000 -- to keep the scam afloat.
Federal prosecutor Preet Bharara are said to have developed code designed to fool investors and regulators while making their boss's impropriety harder to detect.
Both O'Hara and Perez are longtime Madoff employees, with the former hired in 1990 and the latter in 1991, and they were still on the payroll when the big guy had the cuffs slapped on him almost a year ago.
The day after Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, word got out that the FBI thought up to 10 people could face charges for their roles in the scam -- it looks like they were serious. So far, five people have been arrested, with the three previous criminal defendants (including Madoff himself) pleading guilty.
O'Hara and Perez could face millions of dollars in fines and up to 30 years in prison. They've also been served with civil charges by the SEC.
Newspaper ad revenue of 28%, 8 quarters of double-digit drops
Closing Bell: Earnings working against stocks (BCRX, DELL, DHI, INTC, LEAP, PCS)
Chasing Value: E-Trade, a word of caution
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-16-2009 @ 3:29PM
aswarp said...
I like the new and part of the article, but not the bias against the computer science proffesional collective. Please be more respectful to those in the future or better go write some script for the IT Crowd sitcom.