Two computer programmers have been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the latest development in the Bernard Madoff fraud case.

Jerome O’Hara and George Perez are alleged to have written computer programs which created “many thousands” of pages of fake stock records, trade blotters and reports, all of which were used to provide legitimacy to Madoff’s business.

The SEC also claimed that O’Hara and Perez had a “crisis of conscience” in 2006 and received “hush money” from Madoff and his lieutenant Frank DiPascali, Jr. after threatening to expose the scam.

George S Canellos, director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office, said the Madoff fraud “would not have been possible” without the assistance of O’Hara and Perez.

“They used their special computer skills to create sophisticated, credible and entirely phony trading records that were critical to the success of Madoff's scheme for so many years.”

The SEC had already charged a number of people and businesses since the fraud was exposed last year.

These include Madoff himself and his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, DiPascali, and auditors David G Friehling and Friehling & Horowitz.