NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Swindler Bernard Madoff’s firm  was a “piggy bank” that enriched his extended family, supported  their lavish lifestyle and paid for the house or personal  expenses of at least two loyal longtime employees, according to  court documents.

The papers, filed on Tuesday night by the court-appointed  trustee winding down the firm to recover assets for defrauded  customers worldwide, provide more details about the $65 billion  fraud to which Madoff pleaded guilty on March 12.

For decades “Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities  (BLMIS) was Bernie Madoff and Bernie Madoff was BLMIS, each the  alter ego of the other” lawyers for trustee Irving Picard said  in the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

“This entanglement permitted Madoff, at his whim and  desire, to engage in innumerable financial transactions wherein  he essentially used BLMIS as his personal ‘piggy bank’ having  BLMIS pay for his lavish lifestyle and that of his family.