Bernard Madoff staff deny aiding $65bn Ponzi scheme

Bernard Madoff, the financier convicted of engineering a $65bn Ponzi scheme, misled his own staff about the ruse that cost clients billions of dollars in losses, a defence lawyer said during the trial of five former employees accused of assisting the fraudster.

Defending Daniel Bonventre, an ex-operations director for Madoff's firm, Andrew Frisch told a New York jury his client had "believed Madoff like so many others." "He devoted his life to Madoff.... Dan is broken but he is not guilty," he added.

Mr Bonventre, along with portfolio managers Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi, and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, deny the charges. The prosecution said that while the fact that Madoff lied to keep his scheme going was beyond dispute, the defendants were not blameless.