Madoff staff high-life not for trial The lavish lifestyles of former employees of jailed financier Bernard Madoff can't be used against them at their upcoming criminal trial, a judge has ruled. The decision by US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain came on Wednesday during a pretrial hearing for five of Madoff's former employees after defence lawyers complained that the government wanted to use tales of fancy cars and vacation homes to turn jurors against their clients. Swain found that any attempt to portray the defendants "as greedy or extravagant" could unfairly cloud jurors' perception of them. The ex-employees of Madoff's private investment business are accused of assisting his fraud by doctoring books and records to show fictitious trades and phantom accounts in a fraud that reached into the 1970s and ended only after Madoff's arrest in 2008. Investors lost nearly $US20 billion ($A21.42 billion), though a court-appointed trustee has recovered billions of dollars for the thousands of people who lost money in the scam. To stand trial on October 7 are Annette Bongiorno, Madoff's longtime secretary and a supervisor in his private investment business; Daniel Bonventre, his director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, who managed accounts; and two computer programmers, Jerome O'Hara and George Perez. All have pleaded not guilty. The judge barred evidence of personal purchases made by the defendants. However, she found the jury could hear about the beach house and a Caribbean vacation for another defendant because Madoff's firm directly helped fund them. Six others have pleaded guilty in the case, including Madoff's chief financial officer, who is expected to testify at next month's trial. Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence in North Carolina.