NEW YORK – Jury selection begins Tuesday in the New York fraud trial of five former employees of imprisoned Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf).
Nearly five years in the making, the trial of Madoff's longtime secretary and other back-office workers is expected to unfold over five months in federal court in Manhattan. It's the first trial to result from the unprecedented fraud that was revealed to thousands of investors in December 2008 with Madoff's arrest.
Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence in Butner, N.C.
Prosecutors say the defendants played critical roles in helping Madoff conceal a fraud that squandered nearly $20 billion in investor money over several decades.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty. They are expected to argue through lawyers that they were victims of the fraud as well.
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