NEW YORK – In December 2008, two of Bernard Madoff’s most loyal employees met on a Manhattan street corner and fretted over a closely held secret that the rest of the world would learn about eight days later: that their boss was a con man for the ages.

Frank DiPascali told JoAnn Crupi that Madoff had just confided that his investment firm was out of money and that client accounts – worth billions on paper – actually had no more value than Monopoly money, authorities said.

The pair then is alleged to have cooked up a cover story that quickly collapsed under the weight of the largest Ponzi scheme in history – one authorities say cost investors an estimated $17.3 billion.