Ex-Madoff director gets decade in jail

New York - A US judge Monday sentenced a top Bernard Madoff lieutenant to 10 years in prison and ordered $155bn in forfeiture for his role in the notorious Madoff Ponzi scheme.

The sentencing of Daniel Bonventre, a 40-year employee of Madoff Securities and the firm's director of operations, was the first of five punishments on former Madoff staff to be meted out by US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.

In March, a New York jury found the group guilty of a total of 31 counts, including accounting fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to defraud the US.

Prosecutors said Bonventre ordered false entries in the firm's ledger that understated liabilities by billions of dollars. He also filed false income tax returns, failing to report millions of dollars in cash and other benefits, such as membership in a country club.

The other four workers who were convicted are Jerome O'Hara, George Perez, Daniel Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi. All were longstanding employees of the firm. They will be sentenced in separate sessions over the next week.

Many Madoff victims lost life savings in an elaborate conspiracy that prosecutors said went on undetected for more than 30 years before exploding into view during the 2008 financial crisis.

When Madoff was arrested at the end of 2008 after the collapse of his investment group, questions abounded on how many people in his company knew the accounts in the $60bn fund were largely bogus.

Hundreds of clients, including wealthy individuals and families and prominent charity foundations, reported losses of some $17bn in principal and tens of billions more in paper profits in the collapse.

Madoff, once a Wall Street star who served as president of the Nasdaq exchange, was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the fraud.