MADOFF 5 YEARS AGO

Notes from Elizabeth Williams:
Five years ago, on a dark rainy evening I got a call from my photo editor at Bloomberg News.
He said can you run over to the Manhattan Federal Courthouse, and cover the arraignment of a defendant who was accused of a 20 billion dollar fraud. That took me back, and I asked him, did you just say billion??
Equally stunned, he said, "yes".
During that day I had drawn Marc Dreier who was accused of a 300 hundred million dollar fraud, but something in the billions, and that many billions was shocking.
After that day, Bernard Madoff became a nationally known criminal, who ran the longest and largest Ponzi scheme in history. Currently his right hand man, Frank DiPascali is on the stand in Manhattan Federal Court disclosing details on how the fraud and scheme was carried out.

AUSA Marc Litt outlining Madoff's fraud with his victims seated left  March 2009

Bernard Madoff with his attorney Ira Sorkin before he was cuffed and sent to prison.
By Elizabeth Willliams

Wall Street Journal> Madoff 5 years later

"Madoff Five" trial

The trial of the "Madoff 5": Daniel Bonventre, Annette Bongiorno, Joann Crupi, George Perez and Jerome O'Hara, began on October 8th, with jury selection lasting about a week. Opening statements followed then several witnesses including an FBI agent took the stand. Today Matthew Cohen a managing director of Alix Partners testified. Cohen is  a consultant who helped unravel the fraud after its discovery. 
Cohen  testified that Perez told him that  Madoff  in 2006 asked him   to alter core computer programs to permit changes to past account statements for his investment advisory unit.
More from Bloomberg story by Erik Larson
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-22/ex-madoff-employee-altered-code-for-money-jury-told.html

Matthew Cohen from Alix Partners on the stand
with diagram of Madoff's office  layout in the Lipstick Building on the computer screen

Defendants left to right, Joann Crupi, Daniel Bonventre, Jerome O'Hara( front row),
Annette Bongiorno, George Perez( front row)

The Five Things You Need to Know About the Madoff Trial 
Five former Madoff underlings — two account supervisors, two computer programmers, and a former operations director — are accused of working with Mr. Madoff and others to deceive investors and keep the Ponzi scheme afloat. The defendants — George Perez, Jerome O’Hara, JoAnn Crupi, Annette Bongiorno and Daniel Bonventre — say they were duped like everyone else and were mere pawns. All five have pleaded not guilty.