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.

Allen Stanford gets kicked around, but Bernie Madoff can clearly throw down some serious smack. While the former's being moved from one facility to another because he's lost some ground on the cell block, Madoff just earned himself some props.

The engineer of the largest (known) Ponzi scheme in history apparently got into an argument with another geriatric inmate at the Butner, North Carolina federal prison. Of course, it was over the stock market. Does it really make sense to outmaneuver a guy who never needed to know what the market was doing to deliver double-digit returns?

Well, push came to shove, as they say, with the "attacker" stumbling and looking up at a mean, mean Madoff. He got up and ran off.

David Friehling is only the second person to face criminal charges in the Bernard Madoff debacle. He served as Madoff's auditor from 1991 to 2008, though it's hard to say if they'll resume their relationship as cellies. For now, Friehling has only been charged (innocent until proven guilty, and such) with securities fraud, abetting investment adviser fraud and filing false reports with the SEC. On five of the six charges filed, he faces a 20-year maximum.

It's alleged that Friehling didn't conduct "meaningful" audits while in Madoff's employ, despite issuing reports saying that he'd done his job -- which paid close to $15,000 a month (no work for big pay . . . where do I sign up?). In particular, he's said to have not bothered to verify Madoff's business assets, revenue sources or bank accounts. This is no-brainer stuff for an auditor.

One of the more intriguing questions of the $50 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme is where did all of the money go. Investors now may get a rough idea as to what the man who was once considered by investors to be some sort of genius did with their life savings.

According to Bloomberg News, Madoff is due to file a statement today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission listing his assets. That probably is one of the many, many conditions of his bail, including hiring a private security company to keep gawkers and the press away from his apartment building. I am sure the tenant's association meetings have been lively.

Before he was arrested, Madoff allegedly told employees that he had $200 million to $300 million left, according to Bloomberg. His lawyer declined to comment to the news service as to what happened to remaining funds. There are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Much of Madoff's fortune may be in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda or countless other small Caribbean nations. Finding it may be extremely difficult without the cooperation of Madoff or some of his closest associates.

Though Madoff claims to have operated the Ponzi scheme by himself, that probably is not true either. The logistics of keeping such a large fraud going for decades would be difficult if not impossible to maintain. Madoff, like many Ponzi scheme operators, is trying to take the rap himself. Perhaps he is trying to deflect attention from his sons, who both claim they had no idea what their father was doing.

The fact that Madoff is Jewish as were many of his victims is not surprising either. Many Jewish charities and philanthropic institutions did not bother vetting Madoff since he was of the same religion. Victims of fraud often never imagine that one of their own would try to steal from them.

For the many victims of Madoff's scheme, justice many be elusive. Their retirement dreams have been dashed and they will need years to rebuild their financial security. It may take years for them to recover a fraction of the money they lost from Madoff.

MassMutual became the latest big investor to admit losing money because of Bernard Madoff.

According to Wall Street Journal, the company's Tremont Financial Group lost $3 billion -- more than half of its assets -- because of Madoff's $50 billion scam. Then there's the problem of disclosure.

"Tremont marketing documents did not always disclose the relationship between Mr. Madoff and the feeder funds, even when mentioning other investment managers," the paper said.

So let me get this straight: MassMutual entrusted some of its investors' money to one of the supposed geniuses of Wall Street and did not want anyone to know? Maybe the company did not want its customers to know that it was collecting fees that it did not really earn. I suspect many aggrieved investors will sue. I sympathize with their plight, ,but I do not feel sorry for people who invested with Madoff directly.

Many Madoff customers turned a blind eye to many red flags that should have sent them running for the hills. First of all, no one understood the Madoff's "investing philosophy." Questions about his strategy went unanswered.

All these factors were in play with the $50 billion Madoff Securities scandal. As I posted, Bernie Madoff was able to scam investors by creating false financial statements and using a tiny, unknown auditor to persuade investors hungry for membership in his club that they could get regular 10% annual returns in any market.

But Madoff's scam also benefited from a hands-off policy towards Wall Street thanks to help from politicians such as Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who raised millions from Wall Street to do its bidding. As head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee between 2004 and 2008, he raised $240 million while increasing donations from Wall Street by 50%. In return Wall Street got free-market, deregulatory policies that helped them cook up the scandals that have helped wipe out $30 trillion in global stock market value in the last year.

This week a little story about a $50 billion investment fraud has metastasized. Madoff Securities, a brokerage firm that ran a secretive investment fund on the side, has closed down -- revealing that its steady 10% annual returns was a result of a Ponzi scheme. For some who trusted Madoff a week ago, they are today coming to grips with life without money. Is Madoff the only one out there? I doubt it. So you need to protect yourself.

How did Madoff accomplish this? That story has yet to be revealed. But founder Bernie Madoff revealed that he was using money from his most recent investors to pay off the earlier ones who requested their money. And a letter from hedge fund research and advisory firm, Aksia -- which steered its clients away from Madoff -- reveals five useful clues:

• Unknown accounting firm. Madoff used an accounting firm Friehling & Horowitz that employed three people -- one was a 78 year old living in Florida.
• Incomprehensible investment strategy too good to be true. Madoff employed a "split conversion strategy" which was never clearly defined and whose returns other traders could not duplicate.
• Deception about technology. Madoff claimed it was technologically sophisticated but a visitor to its offices found paper tickets sent through the mail.