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Madoff Executive is Charged in Ponzi Scheme

The long-time director of operations for convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff’s defunct firm was arrested and charged criminally Thursday with allegedly directing that false accounting entries be made in the firm’s books to conceal Mr. Madoff’s fraud.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan charged Daniel Bonventre, former operations director at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, with conspiracy, securities fraud, falsifying books and records of a broker-dealer, false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and four counts of filing false federal tax returns.

A lawyer for Mr. Bonventre declined to comment Thursday.

Bonventre, 63 years old, is expected to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in Manhattan later Thursday. He faces as much as 20 years each on the fraud, falsifying-books-and-records and false-filings charges.

He is the sixth person to be charged criminally in the case, including Mr. Madoff himself.

The SEC also separately brought civil accounting fraud charges against Mr. Bonventre, alleging he helped disguise Mr. Madoff’s fraud and financial losses at the Madof firm by misusing and improperly recording investor money to create the false appearance of legitimate income.