[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Bernie Madoff's legacy may have been short-changed.

U.S. prosecutors originally dated the conspiracy to defraud clients of the former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC to roughly 1992, filed in a November 2010 indictment.  However, new charges place the Ponzi scheme back as early as the early 1970s – long before anyone raised a red flag.

The defendants:

• Daniel Bonventre, former operations manager
• Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi, former investment advisory employees
• Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, former computer programmers

The new charges, including bank fraud charges related to both corporate and personal loans, as well as new tax offenses, are part of a 33-count indictment, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.  Going forward, the defendants will be arraigned this afternoon, he said.  Madoff, 74, is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison.

"We will not rest until all the alleged participants and enablers are made to answer for their conduct." -- Mr. Bharara, in a statement.

[Reuters, 10/1/12]