New York - Bernard Madoff was a Wall Street rock star who charmed billionaires, celebrities, government regulators and his employees, including five of his ex-workers who are on trial for fraud, defense attorneys told a jury Thursday in opening statements.

Attorney Andrew James Frisch said Madoff and his former finance chief - government cooperator Frank DiPascali - were "depraved and pathological" as they delivered millions of lies to disguise a fraud that cheated thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.

On Wednesday, a prosecutor accused the five former employees of being crucial components of a fraud that remained hidden for decades, but defense lawyers on Thursday insisted their clients were fooled in the same way that Securities and Exchange Commission inspectors and sophisticated financial experts were.

Frisch portrayed his client, Daniel Bonventre, as enamored by Madoff. Bonventre, 66, rose to a position of director of operations after joining the firm in the late 1960s. He oversaw the legitimate side of Madoff's business, not the secretive private investment wing, Frisch said.

"Dan believed Madoff, like so many others," Frisch said. "He devoted his life to Madoff. ... Dan is broken but he is not guilty."

Roland Riopelle, attorney for Madoff's longtime secretary, Annette Bongiorno, said his client too was taken in by "a kind of rock star in the securities industry."

"The government simply cannot prove that she knew there was a fraud and intended to hurt anyone," he said.

Bongiorno started working for Madoff in the 1960s when she was 19 and eventually became a supervisor, responsible for maintaining the accounts of longtime customers, Riopelle said.

He noted that she kept her money in the company's accounts until the fraud was revealed and had encouraged her family and friends to invest as well, something she would not do if she was "really some kind of monster."

Frisch described Madoff as someone as a "Wall Street icon," someone as large in stature in the securities industry as Donald Trump in business, LeBron James in basketball or Oprah Winfrey on television. He said Madoff's clients included filmmaker Steven Spielberg and actors Kevin Bacon and John Malkovich.

Frisch and Riopelle insisted their clients had no chance.

"She knew many of Madoff's customers were billionaires and they knew more about the markets than she did," Riopelle said.

Others on trial include JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez. They too have pleaded not guilty.