How Bernie Madoff's Employees Allegedly Used His Office Fridge To Pass Off Falsified Documents

The trial of five of Bernard Madoff's former employees has begun, with prosecutors arguing that the defendants, like Madoff, "knew exactly what they were doing."

But one anecdote shines through from the opening scene in the courtroom, according to the AP's Larry Neumeister and Tom Hays. From the AP:

The prosecutor alleged the defendants went to absurd lengths to cover their tracks. He told an anecdote about how in the middle of an audit, O'Hara, Perez and Krupi needed to quickly cook up a fake document. After pulling the document hot off the printer, they put it in a refrigerator to cool it off and tossed it around to make it look older before handing it over to auditors waiting in a conference room at Madoff's firm, he said.

"These are the people who helped him do it," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schwartz told jurors. "Bernie Madoff needed help to fool so many people for so long."

Read the full report at the AP »