Madoff Computer Programmers Indicted

March 18, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that Jerome O'Hara and George Perez -- former computer programmers for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC -- were indicted by a federal grand jury in Manhattan.

The charges include conspiracy, falsifying records of a broker-dealer, and falsifying records of an investment adviser. According to the announcement, O’Hara and Perez primarily were responsible for developing and maintaining computer programs that supported the operation of the BLMIS’ investment advisory business.      

The indictment says that between 2003 and 2008, BLMIS was subject to at least five reviews by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a European accounting firm that was conducting a review of BLMIS’ operations on behalf of a European client. It is alleged that as part of a concerted effort overseen by Madoff and his employee, Frank Dipascali, Jr., to deceive both the SEC and the European accounting firm, O’Hara and Perez developed and maintained computer programs that generated numerous false and fraudulent records.      

O’Hara and Perez are alleged to have known that the special programs they developed contained fraudulent information and that they were used in connection with the SEC and European accounting firm reviews.      

Each man faces a maximum sentence totaling 30 years in prison: five years on Count One (Conspiracy) and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense; 20 years on Count Two (Falsifying Records of a Broker- Dealer) and a maximum fine of $5 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense; and five years on count Three (Falsifying Records of an Investment Adviser), and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

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