[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Five former employees of Bernie L. Madoff Investment Securities are going to an unusual source for help in crafting their defense arguments against charges they knowingly aided their boss’s Ponzi scheme. Annette Bongiorno, Joann Crupi, Daniel Bonventre, Jerome O’Hara, and George Perezasked U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that federal prosecutors be ordered to to turn over potentially favorable information - e.g., evidence that they were lied to about the firm's activities.  This would include statements from Frank DiPascali Jr., a key Madoff lieutenant who is cooperating with the government. "We seek disclosure of any and all information suggesting that Madoff and others provided false explanations to customers, financial institutions, and regulators or employees in order to disguise the fact that BLMIS was not investing customer funds," the defendants said in papers filed in federal court in Manhattan. The defendants claim the government last month turned over partial reports of FBI interviews with DiPascali that suggest that Madoff, DiPascali, and others kept them in the dark about the fact they weren’t investing any of their clients’ money. For further details, go to [NY Post, 3/16/12] and [Business Week, 3/16/12].