(Updates with additional details of allegations, lawyers for the men not immediately returning phone calls seeking comment.)

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Two former computer programmers at convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff's firm were indicted Wednesday on charges they allegedly helped Madoff hide a massive fraud from regulators.

The three-count indictment, returned Wednesday, charges Jerome O'Hara and George Perez with conspiracy, falsifying the books and records of ...

A new ruling in the Bernard Madoff case could spell big trouble for Hub philanthropist Carl Shapiro and his family, who allegedly netted $1 billion more from the Ponzi scheme than they put into it.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Burton Lifland ruled today that a trustee unwinding Madoff's $65 billion scam should use a “net-equity” formula when deciding who lost what.

That means clients who withdrew more from their Madoff accounts than they put in could actually owe money - even though many victims say they lost millions to the scam. For instance, the Shapiros reportedly claim Madoff took them and their foundation for some $550 million.

A bankruptcy judge on Monday ruled that certain investors in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme aren't entitled to recoveries from the fraud.

The ruling, by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan, affirmed the view of a trustee who is recovering assets for victims of the multibillion-dollar fraud, Irving Picard. Mr. Picard has said that investors who withdrew more money from Mr. Madoff's investment firm than they put in-making them "net winners" from the fraud-shouldn't be entitled to recovered funds.

(Adds case history beginning in third paragraph.)

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Daniel Bonventre, the ex-director of operations for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of its probe of fraud at the defunct firm.

Bonventre, 63, was taken into custody this morning at his home in Manhattan and is to appear in federal court later today, according to James Margolin, a spokesman for the FBI.

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Frank DiPascali Jr., who has been in jail since pleading guilty to helping Bernard Madoff carry out the largest U.S. Ponzi scheme, won a judge’s approval of his release on $10 million bail.

DiPascali must meet 11 bail conditions, including living under 24-hour-a-day house arrest, wearing an electronic monitor, and leaving home only when escorted by an FBI agent, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in New York ruled yesterday. DiPascali, 53, has been in jail since he pleaded guilty Aug. 11.

new york (dow jones)--a federal judge on thursday granted bail pending sentencing to frank dipascali jr., a key lieutenant to convicted ponzi-scheme operator bernard madoff and a cooperating witness who has been jailed since his guilty plea

st. paul, minn. - minnesota businessman tom petters is scheduled to be sentenced march 10 on his conviction for orchestrating a $3.65 billion ponzi scheme. u.s. district judge richard kyle set the date in an order monday. petters was convicted

After two seasons plumbing other areas of sin and corporate corruption, the new season of FX's legal thriller "Damages" stands to make a killing in investment rip-offs.

Why not? A Bernie Madoff-scope Ponzi scheme destroys people while driving some of them to destroy others. It exposes dreadful secrets: Some people discover they're not rich, but broke, while others are revealed to be morally bankrupt.

No one would ever mistake the cramped, unadorned Manhattan courtroom of Judge Burton R. Lifland for King Solomon's court.

But the parallels were clear on Tuesday as Judge Lifland of Federal Bankruptcy Court listened for nearly four hours to impassioned arguments over a legal issue that will inevitably require him to hurt some victims of Bernard L. Madoff's gigantic Ponzi scheme and help others, Diana B. Henriques reports in The New York Times.

Investors who suffered losses in Bernard Madoff's fraud will soon learn whether they must share money recovered from the Ponzi scheme with other investors who withdrew more from the investment firm than they put in.

A lawyer for a court-appointed trustee recovering assets for Madoff investors is expected to argue Tuesday in a bankruptcy court hearing that the trustee's plan to reimburse only investors who suffered net losses from the fraud is the most equitable way to treat victims.

With all the fuss in Congress over the American International Group's collapse and bailout, it would be easy to overlook another debacle from the darkest days of the financial crisis: Bernard L. Madoff's vast Ponzi scheme. But there was news on that front as well on Wednesday.

Peter Madoff, the brother of the imprisoned swindler, is the subject of a criminal investigation, his lawyer said in a civil lawsuit over losses by the charitable foundation of Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

* Disbarred lawyer admits role in $1.2 billion fraud

* Agrees to forfeit properties, autos, jewelry, cash

* Faces up to 100 years in prison (Adds details on plea, comment by prosecutor, byline)

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Disbarred South Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein pleaded guilty in Miami federal court Wednesday to orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that bilked clients out of more than $1 billion.

Rothstein, 47, who fled to Morocco in late October but returned to Florida in early November, faces up to 100 years in prison when he is sentenced May 6.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A disbarred attorney who courted politicians and star athletes and led a flamboyant lifestyle even by South Florida standards pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges that he ran a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. Scott Rothstein, 47, pleaded guilty to all five counts against him, including wire fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and a racketeering charge commonly used to take down Mafia chieftains. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 100 years in federal prison. Sentencing is set for May 6.

Disgraced ex-attorney Scott Rothstein pleaded guilty Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court to running South Florida's largest investment scam, totaling $1.2 billion.

Dressed in a tan prison jumpsuit and shackled at ankles and wrists, the formerly high-flying lawyer displayed no emotion as he acknowledged guilt for operating a massive Ponzi scheme that destroyed his law firm and sucked dry the bank accounts of his investors and law clients.

'Damages' is 'Law & Order' as rendered by Marcel Duchamp. The series rips a scandal from the headlines, then fragments it so artfully that it takes an entire season to see the whole picture.

This time, it's the Bernard L. Madoff story.

Season 3 of this stylish legal thriller begins on FX on Monday with New York's scariest litigator, Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), setting her sights on a crooked billionaire, Louis Tobin (Len Cariou). Tobin is under house arrest for a Ponzi scheme that bilked billions of dollars from investors.

DENVER—Federal regulators have accused four people and two companies of fraud in an alleged $30 million Ponzi scheme that lured 300 investors nationwide in purported eco-friendly investments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Wayde McKelvy and Donna McKelvy, who were married, used their Centennial, Colo.-based company Speed of Wealth to find investors for Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based Mantria Corp.

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Ruth Madoff’s 14-carat diamondearrings sold for $70,000 today in a Manhattan auction ofkeepsakes, jewelry and clothing owned by Bernard L. Madoff andhis wife that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars forvictims of his Ponzi scheme.

An 18-carat gold Rolex “prisoner watch” -- one of about50 watches on the block -- sold for $65,000. It got its namebecause Rolex offered similar steel ones to prisoners of war inGermany during World War II.

We now have a sense of how big south Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein's alleged Ponzi scheme may have been.

WSJ: An alleged Ponzi scheme by prominent Florida attorney Scott W. Rothstein likely topped $1 billion, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Thursday.

Law-enforcement authorities are still gathering information on the massive suspected fraud, and criminal charges aren't likely to be filed for weeks, added a spokeswoman at the FBI's field office in Miami.

The FBI confirmed Thursday what many have speculated since the Scott Rothstein scandal broke: The flashy lawyer could not have defrauded investors of hundreds of millions without help.

"I do not believe that this was a one-man show," said John Gillies, head of the FBI in South Florida.

From his law firm, Rothstein ran a Ponzi scheme that sold bogus legal settlements to investors for four years, according to documents filed by federal prosecutors this week.

The alleged investment scam by Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein could top $1 billion, making it one of the biggest fraud cases in South Florida history, the head of the FBI in Miami said Thursday morning at a news conference.

``When it's all said and done, I estimate that this scheme could well exceed one billion dollars,'' said FBI Special Agent in Charge John Gillies.

He would not talk about whether others may have been involved with the lawyer's alleged Ponzi scheme, but said ``I do not believe this was a one-man show.''