Whammy - Two Charged in Aiding Madoff

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Two computer programmers who worked for Bernard L. Madoff’s investment firm were accused Friday of helping to cover-up the giant Ponzi scheme for more than for more than 15 years.

In a statement, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan said the two programmers — Jerome O’Hara, 46, of Malverne, N.Y., and George Perez, 43, of East Brunswick, N.J. — were arrested Friday at their homes.

The complaint accuses the two men of providing the technical support needed to produce false documents and trading records that defrauding investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities of billions of dollars.

“Jerome O’Hara and George Perez allegedly helped construct Bernie Madoff’s house of cards. The computer codes and random algorithms they allegedly designed served to deceive investors and regulators and concealed Madoff’s crimes,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

In addition, Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York office, said that when the two men told Mr. Madoff “they would no longer lie for him,” they were paid to keep the scheme quiet.

Separately, a civil complaint was filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Without the help of O’Hara and Perez, the Madoff fraud would not have been possible,” said George S. Canellos, the director of the S.E.C.’s New York Regional Office. “They used their special computer skills to create sophisticated, credible and entirely phony trading records that were critical to the success of Madoff’s scheme for so many years.”

According to prosecutors, F.B.I. agents found handwritten notes in Mr. O’Hara’s desk stating, “I won’t lie any longer. Next time, I say ‘ask Frank,’ ” referring to Frank DiPascali Jr., Mr. Madoff’s primary assistant in the Ponzi scheme.

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