The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition four of five former Bernard Madoff workers convicted of aiding his $17.5-billion (U.S.) fraud have escaped with sentences much lighter than prosecutors sought. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says prison terms meted out by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain at hearings this week moved some defendants and their lawyers to tears. Another lawyer thanked her profusely. Mr. Madoff's secretary, who went on to run the investment-advisory business at the centre of the scam, got six years behind bars, less than half what the U.S. wanted. She was followed by former computer programmer Jerome O'Hara, who was given a 2-1/2-year term instead of the recommended eight. On Monday, Daniel Bonventre, who ran the con man's broker-dealer unit for four decades, got 10 years, less than half the time sought by prosecutors. "It's outrageous," Jerry Reisman, a lawyer for more than 30 victims, told Bloomberg. "My victims are just shocked, because they believe each of these individuals were active participants in the fraud." While the five-month trial was a total victory for the government, several prosecutors frowned in court Tuesday as the sentences were handed down in New York.