what other surprises >> it was interesting for a prosecutor like marc litt, this was different.g told there was a confession and they had to come up with a criminal complaint that would last that, would stick through all of these years both in terms of forfeiture, in terms of -- i mean, they didn't know at the time whether madoff was going to immediately plead guilty it took him three months, which is a relatively short time, but it was sort of a -- almost a crash course of trying to put this together in a way that would serve the victims and serve justice. >>> can i ask a dumb question. what if somebody was doing stuff here that never went anywhere. did a fake job for years what -- are we supposed to believe the employees that work there? a lot of them had zero idea that nothing they were doing was real >> well -- >> how does that happen? >> reporter: it happens -- well, first of all, 15 people have either pleaded guilty or been convicted in relation to this, so you can't say that the employees weren't involved did they know the exact nature of the fraud all indications are, no

. >> reporter: but one person doesn't want to hear from madoff marc litt was his prosecutor litt's office, madoff's former base of operations and for three years a federal crime scene. >> i looked around the room and there were pictures of his boats on the wall and they were all named bull i said what is that thing over there? and i saw that it was a sculpture of a wood screw. and it all of a sudden hit me that here i was the prospective investor surrounded by bull and getting screwed, but i didn't know it. >> mark litt has never spoken publicly about this case until now. we've got more from him and key players. out today, madoff ten years later. you can subscribe at apple podcast. a lot more coverage in the next couple days of this weird anniversary. >> joe was asking you, what's been recovered of the $65 billion? >> so $65 billion, this is what was on the statements. the amount of principal invested was more of $18 billion. of that, $13 billion and counting which is impressive for a ponzi scheme. >> parly in the midst of the financial crisis but the trustee has been going after clawback