Government rests case in Madoff employees trial

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors rested their case against five former Bernard Madoff employees Tuesday after presenting a jury with dozens of witnesses, charts and exhibits about the financier's historic Ponzi scheme in a fraud trial that began in October.

The end of government evidence came after prosecutors entered a final group of charts shoowing gains that three of the defendants made on backdated trades and hundreds of dollars in credit card expenses one ran up for a hotel stay, California wines and Cuban cigars.

The defendants are charged with knowingly participating in and profiting from the scam Madoff ran for decades as he defrauded thousands of ordinary investors, charities, celebrities and others out of an estimated $19 billion.

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Charged in the case are Annette Bongiorno, a former Madoff assistant; Daniel Bonventre, the company's ex-general manager; JoAnn Crupi, a former financial assistant; ex-Madoff computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez.

They have pleaded not guilty and contended they did not know about the fraud and were instead hoodwinked by Madoff.

Defense lawyers for all but Bongiorno had said their clients will not testify at the trial.

The case is the first presented to a jury weighing evidence about the record-setting fraud, because Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 without standing trial. He is now serving a 150-year prison term.

Bonventre defense lawyer Andrew Frisch began presenting defense evidence later Tuesday, calling his client's daughter-in-law and a New Jersey real estate broker. He is expected to call Frank DiPascali, the former Madoff finance chief who was also the prosecution's star witness.