Madoff's Programmers Indicted

jason8 writes with news that two programmers who worked at Bernie Madoff's investment firm have now been indicted on charges of 'conspiracy, falsifying records of a broker-dealer and falsifying records of an investment adviser,' for their role in hiding the firm's activities (PDF) from the SEC and external accountants. Quoting Reuters: "O'Hara and Perez, employed at the firm from 1990 and 1991, respectively, were primarily responsible for developing and maintaining computer programs in the investment advisory unit at the center of the fraud. Many of the programs were run on an IBM server known as 'House 17,' according to court documents. Prosecutors said the men took hush money to help keep the fraud going and designed codes to make up fake trade blotters and phantom records. US prosecutors said the two men worked under the supervision of Madoff and his top aide, Frank DiPascali, to deceive the US Securities and Exchange Commission and a European accounting firm. DiPascali is cooperating with prosecutors, who said his information led to the arrests of the programmers and the now defunct firm's outside accountant."

Comments

So what?

[Hatta]

Wake me up when someone at AIG gets indicted.

Re:So what?

[jhd]

Dont forget Goldman, Citi, Fanny, Freddy, BofA, CountryWide, etc....

They all new what they were doing.

Re:So what?

[Hatta]

You are of course correct. Also, Lehman Bros. Especially Lehman Bros. Their failure was the straw that broke the camels back. And yes, they knew what they were doing. They were so clever about what they were doing that they came up with ways to hide liability that no one ever thought of before. String em all up I say.

Re:So what?

[Gorobei]

Programmers often claim to be professional workers rather than technicians. This is pretty much a case study: do you walk because you are being asked to behave unethically, or do you rationalize the problem and accept the $200K/year (or whatever?)

Last week I was meeting with our business head, and he asked me if and why my team was able to execute a pretty complex plan. I said yes, of course, and the only reason I gave was that everyone on the team was honest: they would each work hard, and would update us rapidly on their real progress and problems. Got it sold in under a minute, no PERT charts needed. Just professionals planning to get a job done - if even one person on the team might behave like the programmers involved in Madoff's operation, I wouldn't have been able to promise anything.

I guess the moral of the story is to have morals.

[Agamous Child]

If your boss asks you to break the law, the argument "I was just following orders!" doesn't hold up according to the authorities, especially when your boss decides to "cooperate with them" and throw you under the bus. Always question the motives and the legality of a system you design, and if your boss asks you to break the law, tell them that you won't do it, and if they persist, explain that you are going to contact authorities immediately.

Would be interesting...

[timeOday]

...to know how much "hush money" they actually received? Madoff made billions from this. I'll bet anything these guys were paid less than the average Goldman Sachs annual bonus.

I hope I would say "no" to something like this. As engineers and software developers, we generally feel obliged to do what we are told.

Makes me think of this scene from Clerks

[colmore]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lzEhoXads

Re:No details

[canajin56]

Also, the courts are granting one of the masterminds leniency in exchange for prosecuting their underlings? Isn't that the opposite of how it works? Reducing the sentence of a drug kingpin in exchange for testimony against 2 of his street dealers, really?

Re:I guess the moral of the story is to have moral

[DoofusOfDeath]

If your boss asks you to break the law, the argument "I was just following orders!" doesn't hold up according to the authorities, especially when your boss decides to "cooperate with them" and throw you under the bus.

This is only sometimes true. If you tortured people for the CIA under orders, the Obama administration says it won't prosecute you. Although that's not exactly the same, because their argument is that it's okay because the CIA lawyers said it was.

Re:I guess the moral of the story is to have moral

[tpstigers]

Success in our culture is often measured by money. Unfortunately, money and morals don't usually go together. So we generally have to make a choice - do I want to be rich, or would I rather be able to teach my kids the difference between right and wrong? Personally, I think you made the right choice.

They didn't turn Madoff in.

[Animats]

Also, the courts are granting one of the masterminds leniency in exchange for prosecuting their underlings? Isn't that the opposite of how it works? Reducing the sentence of a drug kingpin in exchange for testimony against 2 of his street dealers, really?

Justice Department policy is that the first one to come forward and turn in the others gets leniency. Those guys could have turned in Madoff, even after Madoff's arrest, until Madoff confessed. But the one "that is second in the door -- even if by only a matter of days or hours, as has been the case on a number of occasions -- will not be eligible for leniency." If your company is crooked, it's very important to know this.

Madoff himself, of course, is Prisoner #61727-054, at Butner Federal Correctional Institution (medium security).

"Investigative Journalism" is dead

[beakerMeep]

Is it just me or does it seem like the most important details are always left out of these articles? The report clearly raises the question about how much these guys were paid and how willingly they aided their superiors. It also seems an inexplicable role reversal of the big fish cooperating to catch the little fish. Why is this type of info always left out of articles? I gather it's possible that some info was unavailable, but I feel like the journalists who write these articles don't even bother following up to see. As long as we have a bit of controversy it's good to go. At the very least there should be a line such as "we contacted the US Attorney regarding the case but they had no comment about the apparent role reversal or how much money the programmers were alleged to have been paid for the crime."

About Time!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about time some simple programmers got held accountable for their deeds.

I can live with programmers and bad testing, bad code, bad QA, but I can NOT accept EVIL code.

Just following orders does not cut it. These people knew what they were doing, there is no hiding it.

Want to be called a "software engineer"? Live by the engineers code of ethics, be judged by the engineers standards, and accept the same punishment. Otherwise, it's just being a simple programmer.

Re:I guess the moral of the story is to have moral

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I mean, if I worked at a financial org, and they asked me to write some wierd code that created dummy trade records, I may think 'eh?' and ask whether it was correct or not

"Hey, Jim, we need you to write setup code for some test cases."

Re:I guess the moral of the story is to have moral

[Anonymous Coward]

"if your boss asks you to break the law, tell them that you won't do it, and if they persist, explain that you are going to contact authorities immediately."

IMO, That is the worst advice I have ever heard, why on earth would you tell someone you were going to turn them in? What a great way to put yourself and your family in danger. Wouldn't it be better to just resign and report it anonymously? _Telling_ your boss (or anyone) that your going to turn them in serves no purpose and is just pure stupidity.

Re:I guess the moral of the story is to have moral

[ClosedSource]

I know it doesn't put food on the table but you did good. Sometimes the satisfaction you get from doing the right thing is all you get for your efforts.

Let's hope there really is Karma.