Ex-Madoff Employee Was Sick Over High Returns, Jury Told

A former employee of Bernard Madoff on trial for allegedly aiding the con man’s $17 billion fraud told investigators in 2008 that he closed his personal investment account two years before the Ponzi scheme unraveled because the consistently high returns made him feel “sick.”

Daniel Bonventre, who oversaw Madoff’s legitimate broker dealer and proprietary trading units, “said he woke up with a sick feeling in his stomach” in 2006 and later closed his account at the company’s investment advisory business, Meaghan Schmidt, a consultant who helped unravel the fraud after its discovery, told jurors yesterday in federal court in Manhattan.