In THE FIRM the pretty wife of Cruise pleads with him to leave the law firm of evil and give up the Big Career.  "Remember when we would just go through all our coat pockets and find enough change so that we could order a pizza?" she asked.

I search my couch, my kitchen drawers, my old pants sometimes and find a quarter or two  once in a while.

Muckraker reports that they found over 170 million dollars in checks in Madoff's desk drawer.  These represented bonuses he was going to pay his co-conspirators. This at a time when the entire assets of his firm consist of two or three times the amount of these checks.

And let us not mince words here.  Co-conspirators. 

x is an officer whose duties involve oversight of the company's treasury.  You are a co-conspirator.

y is an officer whose duties include running the accounting division of the company.  You are a co-conspirator.

z is one of the top ten in management of the company.  You are a co-conspirator.

"Oh, if only I'd known."

No.   The standard is whether or not you knew or SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. " I had no idea there was a bullet in the chamber.  I just intended to scare him and then the gun went off." That is not a defense.  The shooter is guilty of anything from first degree murder to manslaughter.

"Oh, there were mistakes made.  I admit it.  But it was never my intent."

The driver gets in his car after a few martini's and runs over an old man in the crosswalk. "It was never my intent to hurt that man."  If the driver's BAC is .1%, the driver is guilty of manslaughter.

No. Gross negligence is enough to get someone convicted, get their assets confiscated and get their ass thrown in jail.  Mishandling 50 billion dollars is gross negligence.

Someone flies back to the states and they find a packet of heroin in a suitcase.  "Oh I did not know it was in there.  I brought it back for someone else who would return later.  I did it as a favor."  Not necessarily a defense in the criminal action.

"How could I have known?"  No you are a professional.  You have a license to practice law.  You are a certified public accountant, certified by the state or states you work in.  You have an MBA, and an economics degree.

All you have to do is pull out the resumes these felons created before being hired.  The resumes will maintain that the writer was capable, competent, educated, experienced and ready to hit the ground running.

All you have to do is pull out their weekly, monthly and yearly corporate reports.  They all will 'document" good months, good returns on investments, good predictions for the future, solid financial foundations.

All you have to do is pull out the weekly, monthly and yearly corporate reports that were required by government to governmental regulators.  These represent gross returns, these represent costs, these represent payments to shareholders/investors.  These represent capital.

Charge them all under RICO, and during trial read all these false reports to the jury. Sure, this will be boring, but play some good music in the background to keep the jury awake.

Then you read the financial history of each and every defendant to the jury. 

2006, defendant x 'earned' 1.5 mill in salary, 1mill in bonuses, .5 mill in stock options (that were eventually sold for 4 mill).....

If the judge happens to throw a case or two out of court, do an investigation on the judge a check all of his finances going back five or ten years.