A former employee at fraudster Bernie Madoff’s investment firm didn’t question his boss’ demands, he told prosecutors in the ongoing trial of five employees that resumes Tuesday.
The testimony from David Kugel, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the trial, will help prosecutors make the case that he and his colleagues, including the five on trial, stayed blindly loyal while handsomely profiting from Madoff’s criminal Ponzi scheme, the Associated Press reports.
“If he asked me to do something, I gave it to him. I didn’t question him,” Kugel said in his testimony. “I believed him.”
But Kugel, who described Madoff as his “mentor,” said he didn’t know about the financier’s Ponzi scheme.
All of the defendants in the trial that began last month have pleaded not guilty in the fraud that robbed investors of $20 billion over the course of years.
Madoff, 75, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 2009 and was sentenced to 150 years in prison.
[AP]