After four days of deliberations, the 11-person jury hearing the marathon criminal trial against five former members of Bernard Madoff's staff returned its unanimous verdict, finding all five defendants guilty on all of the 31 combined counts. 

Here are the key facts you need to know:

The defendants in the case were operations chief Daniel Bonventre; portfolio managers Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi; and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez.

The case largely turned on the issue of whether the defendants understood that they were aiding Madoff's scheme when they engaged in conduct such as backdating fake trades and creating false documents. In the end, the jury rejected the defendants' claims that they, too, were victims of Madoff's scheme and that they believed Madoff's business was legitimate.

Following the verdict, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated that the convictions further proved the government's belief that Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme could not have been the work of one person. "These defendants each played an important role in carrying out the charade, propping it up, and concealing it from regulators, auditors, taxing authorities, lenders, and investors," he stated.

The jury found the testimony of Frank DiPascali Jr. to be credible. DiPascali, who worked closely with Madoff and who has already pleaded guilty and received a 125-year prison term in the case, was the government's key cooperating witness. According to the NYT, DiPascali testified about several dramatic instances including one where a visiting auditor asked to see a trading ledger that would back up the firm's claims about the securities it owned for the auditor's client. The ledger did not exist, however, because there were no securities in the client's account. According to DiPascali, "he kept the auditor diverted through the afternoon while several defendants created the fake ledger. When it came hot off the office printer, they cooled it in the office refrigerator and then tossed it around 'like a medicine ball' to give it the well-worn look that a legitimate ledger would have...."

The five defendants are scheduled to be sentenced in late July 2014. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who presided over the case, ruled that the defendants could remain free on bail until sentencing and required each of them to wear electronic monitors.

Although each defendant could face decades in prison, some commentators expect the sentences to be much less severe.

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