Jerome O’Hara (left) with his attorney
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
Two of Bernard Madoff’s former computer programmers were sued by U.S. regulators for allegedly helping to hide his fraud for more than 15 years and trying to cover their tracks after a “crisis of conscience” in 2006.
Jerome O’Hara, 46, and George Perez, 43, wrote programs to generate fake trade blotters, stock records and other documents to back nonexistent transactions, the Securities and Exchange Commission said today in a statement announcing its civil lawsuit.
“Without the help of O’Hara and Perez, the Madoff fraud would not have been possible,” George Canellos, head of the SEC’s New York office, said in the statement….
“O’Hara and Perez had a crisis of conscience in 2006 and tried to cover their tracks,” the SEC said in the statement.
They allegedly sought to delete about 218 of 225 so-called special programs from a computer, known as “House 17,” used to process money management account data. They didn’t delete the monthly backup tapes, the SEC said.
O’Hara and Perez then cashed out hundreds of thousands of dollars from their personal accounts at Madoff’s firm, before confronting him and refusing to generate more bogus records, the SEC said.
I love these “crises of conscience”. They always seem to come after people accumulate a small fortune. I suspect that they just got cold feet. We’ll probably be hearing that they had a Jesus experience. Just watch.
Eideard 
I’m sure they can help Madoff run a ponzi scheme inside the prison system.
When one of my kin taught computer science in the state pen, his best students always were the embezzlers. Preparing for the future.
I suspect they were also brighter than the average too.
O’Hara and Perez then cashed out hundreds of thousands of dollars from their personal accounts at Madoff’s firm, before confronting him and refusing to generate more bogus records….
I’m glad that in the heat of their conversion, they didn’t forget the first commandment: “God wants you to be rich.”
Remember the catch… Only if you pay 10% of all your earnings to your religious overlords.