Here's Why Bernie Madoff Wrote An Email From Prison Defending George Perez
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The new Netflix docuseries, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street, explores how a man named Bernard "Bernie" Madoff became one of the most sought-after Wall Street financiers, only to later devastate his clients after it was discovered he had been orchestrating one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history.
As the series shows viewers, Madoff stole about $65 billion from thousands of clients through his investment company before his 2008 arrest, per History. Many of these victims later testified at his trial that they lost their life savings from his crimes.
Madoff was jailed in 2009, but died in 2021 from end-stage renal disease and other chronic medical conditions, the Associated Press reported. However, he wasn’t the only person to face punishment for the scheme. Several of his employees were also hit with criminal charges, including a man named George Perez, who was one of Madoff’s computer programmers.
But who is George Perez again, and where is he now? Here’s what you need to know.
Who is George Perez?
George Perez is a computer programmer from East Brunswick, N.J., who joined Madoff’s firm in 1991, according to USA Today.
During his trial, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain said that his role in the Ponzi scheme was “far more limited than most, if not all, of your co-defendants.”
However, Judge Taylor Swain said that Perez knowingly became part of the Ponzi scheme in 2006 when he and a fellow computer programmer said they were “uncomfortable” about using certain computer programs to change company records that were shown to auditors, USA Today said.
How was he involved in the Madoff Ponzi scheme?
Perez developed and maintained computer programs that back-dated and falsified financial records to make it look like Madoff had traded stocks that he hadn’t, USA Today says.
However, Madoff actually sent an email from prison defending the programmer and taking blame for the falsified reports Perez and another programmer named Jerome O'Hara.
The email claimed that Perez and O'Hara "had expressed discomfort with preparing the reports in 2006, but [Madoff] had misled them by assuring them the trades were legitimate," CNN reported.
How long was George Perez in jail?
Perez was 43 at the time of his arrest, according to The New York Times, and he initially faced up to 30 years in prison.
In 2014, Perez was sentenced to spend just 2.5 years in jail for helping with Madoff’s crimes, per Reuters. Perez said at the time that he was “sad and tired,” Reuters reported, and he added, “I’m terribly sorry for the role my work played.”
What is George Perez’s net worth?
It’s not clear what George Perez’s net worth is, although Reuters reports that he and other Madoff defendants who worked for Madoff had to forfeit a symbolic $19.7 billion.
Where is George Perez now?
Perez was released from jail in October of 2016 on good behavior, according to The Cinemaholic. It’s unclear where he is now.
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