Annette Bongiorno
Annette Bongiorno
Bernard Madoff longtime assistant and one of his former computer programmers were sentenced to prison terms Tuesday for their roles in helping the Ponzi scheme mastermind steal as much as $20 billion from investors. [0]
Frank DiPascali, Bernard Madoff's right-hand man grew up next to Annette Bongiorno. [1]
Annette Bongiorno, 66, who became a multimillionaire by obeying the boss she idolized, was sentenced to a six-year term for what U.S.
District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain called her decision to obey her boss's instructions rather than recognize the fraud that happened "right in front of her."
The sentence was lower than the more than 20-year term sought by prosecutors — and even fell below the eight-to-ten-years recommended by her defense lawyer.
In part,Taylor Swain cited health factors and Bongiorno's sub-five-foot stature for the decision.
The judge held the Manhasset, N.Y., resident jointly liable with Madoff and other conspirators for nearly $155.2 billion in forfeitures, representing the cumulative amounts taken in one of history's largest financial frauds.
Jerome O'Hara, 51, who worked on computer programs for Madoff's bogus investment advisory business, was sentenced to 2½ years in prison.
The judge said his actions "kept in place the essential backbone of the infrastructure" that perpetuated the fraud.
Taylor Swain held the Malverne, N.Y., father of three jointly liable with other conspirators for $19.7 billion in forfeitures.
Bongiorno and O'Hara were the second and third of five former Madoff staffers convicted in March on conspiracy and fraud charges to receive prison sentences.
A Manhattan federal jury convicted the five on charges they knowingly helped Madoff fabricate and backdate financial records and purported stock trades to fool investment clients, auditors, regulators and investigators.
The scam proceeds bankrolled a life of luxury and riches for the co-workers, trial evidence showed.
The scam collapsed in December 2008, nearly six years to the day of this week's sentencings.
Madoff pleaded guilty the following year without standing trial.
He's serving a 150-year prison term.
Along with imposing the penalties, Taylor Swain denied bail for Bongiorno, pending a potential appeal of the verdict.
The judge ordered her to surrender Feb. 19 and agreed to recommend confinement in a low-security facility in Sumterville, Fla.
The judge postponed a decision on the similar bail issue for O'Hara until Wednesday, when George Perez, another former Madoff computer programmer convicted in the fraud, is scheduled to be sentenced.
Taylor Swain described Bongiorno as someone who was "not fundamentally corrupt" and was dazzled by Madoff because she had just "borderline competence" for the complex financial work she carried out.
Ruling that Bongiorno should have realized Madoff was running a fraud as far back as 1992, the judge concluded she was "a knowing and willing participant who made a choice to participate."
Bongiorno choked back tears as she read a statement addressing the thousands of Madoff scam victims whose dreams and financial security were damaged or destroyed.
She stressed "how very sorry I am by all the sorrow and loss caused by Madoff and by extension, by me."
"I did not know what was happening.
I didn't mean to hurt you," Bongiorno said.
Madoff ponzi, biggest ever
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff (/ˈmeɪdɒf/; [-1] born April 29, 1938) is an American fraudster and a former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, [-1] and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. Prosecutors estimated the size of the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities fraud to be $64.8 billion, based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008. [-1]
Madoff founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and was its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. [-1] The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed "specialist" firms by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers. [-1] At the firm, he employed his brother Peter as senior managing director and chief compliance officer, Peter's daughter Shana Madoff, as the firm's rules and compliance officer and attorney, and his sons Andrew and Mark. Peter has since been sentenced to 10 years in prison [-1] and Mark committed suicide by hanging exactly two years after his father's arrest. [-1] [-1] [-1] Andrew died of lymphoma on September 3, 2014. [-1]
On December 10, 2008, Madoff's sons told authorities that their father had confessed to them that the asset management unit of his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme, and quoted him as describing it as "one big lie". The following day, FBI agents arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had previously conducted multiple investigations into Madoff's business practices, but had not uncovered the massive fraud. [-1]
On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. The Madoff investment scandal defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. However, federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the mid-1980s [-1] and may have begun as far back as the 1970s. Those charged with recovering the missing money believe the investment operation may never have been legitimate. [-1] The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. [-1] The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. [-1] On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed. [-1] [-1]
[-1] New York Times journalist Diana B. Henriques [-1]in two prison interviews came to the conclusion that the fraud goes all the way back to the begining to April 1962 [-1], when the market hit an air pocket. Madoff took money from other accounts and make other accounts whole. Clients were very impressed getting thru the worst week since 1929, and these early clients did not loose a dollar.
In the next generation, Electronic trading in the 1970s instead of paper was an amazing way to hide a fraud and with Madoff admitting the use of specialized software designed to print out bogus statements.