The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a brokerage firm Cohmad Securities and four people with securities fraud, alleging they channeled billions of dollars into Wall Street trickster Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission brought a civil enforcement action against Cohmad Securities Corporation, its chairman Maurice Cohn, his daughter and chief operating officer Marcia Cohn and registered representative Robert Jaffe for securities fraud.

As per the Securities and Exchange Commission's statement, Jaffe and the Cohns collectively lifted between 50 and 65 billion dollars from investors for Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

The SEC statement further stated Madoff greased the palms of the defendants with100 million dollars for raising billions of dollars and bringing in more than 800 investor accounts over two decades.

Jaffe participated in Madoff's pyramid scheme and brought in more than 1 billion dollars from investors and he was compensated by Madoff with hefty returns in his personal accounts.

However, defense lawyers for Jaffe called the SEC complaints "baseless."

On the other hand, Cohmad was paid an annual percentage of the funds that its representatives brought into the scheme.

Madoff, 71, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29 for his role in swindling investors.

The former Nasdaq stock exchange chairman is already in jail since March after admitting guilt in the scheme.

On asking about Madoff, the financial regulator said, "Madoff had a clever marketing strategy. He cultivated an aura of success and secrecy surrounding BMIS, projecting to a social network of wealthy friends and investors that he was highly successful and did not need to market or solicits to obtain investments." 

Lawyers for the other defendants could not be contacted for comments.

Hitherto, 1,341 investors have been identified by investigators with losses exceeding $13 billion.