Thread: Former Madoff Executive Gets 10 Years in Prison

Former Madoff Executive Gets 10 Years in Prison

NEW YORK — Dec 8, 2014, 1:20 PM ET
By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press



Bernard Madoff's former director of operations for investments was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $155 billion.

Daniel Bonventre, 67, was sentenced for his part in the company's yearslong multibillion-dollar fraud, and four of his co-defendants are expected to learn their fate in coming days. The government has said they're the most culpable defendants after Madoff for a fraud that cost thousands of investors nearly $20 billion.

"I was used by the ultimate con man," Bonventre said before his sentence was pronounced.

Madoff, who was arrested in December 2008, is serving a 150-year prison sentence. He was ordered to forfeit $171 billion. The huge forfeiture numbers represent an amount of money connected to the fraud, not the amount stolen or lost.

Madoff, the one-time Nasdaq chairman, told investors in financial statements in November 2008 that the nearly $20 billion they had given him had grown in value to over $60 billion. In reality, Madoff didn't invest their money and was nearly broke.

Madoff's former secretary, Annette Bongiorno, 66, is still awaiting sentencing, as are computer programmers Jerome O'Hara, 51, and George Perez, 48; and account manager JoAnn Crupi, 53.

Prosecutors have said all five deserved stiffer sentences than Madoff's brother, Peter, who received a maximum 10-year sentence after the one-time compliance director for Madoff's firm pleaded guilty. They said Bonventre and Bongiorno were the most culpable of the five because of their "40-year involvement at the very heart of the fraud." They said Crupi, who joined later but "took on an active and ambitious role," was next while the computer programmers were slightly less culpable than Crupi.

Bonventre's sentence fell between what prosecutors and the defense sought.
Prosecutors recommended Bonventre receive significantly more than the 20 years suggested by the Probation Department, saying he had lied to the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the jury and the judge.

"Bonventre's hubris and lack of remorse is simply staggering," prosecutors wrote.

Bonventre's lawyers noted that their client turns 68 this month and that a sentence of any length could amount to a life term. Like defense lawyers for the others, they portrayed their client as a victim of a controlling and evil Madoff. They recommended Bonventre receive home confinement, community service or a short term of incarceration.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/1...enced-27437920

Madoff secretary gets 6 years after judge cites ‘small stature’

By Rich Calder
December 9, 2014 | 1:35pm

Bernie Madoff's former secretary, Annette Bongiorno, leaves Manhattan federal court in February.Photo: Reuters

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Sometimes, it pays to be short.

Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff’s diminutive, longtime former secretary caught a break at her sentencing hearing in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday — with the judge noting that her lack of height might make her “vulnerable” behind bars.

Ex-secretary Annette Bongiorno, 66, was facing up to life in prison but landed just six years after being convicted on securities fraud and tax-evasion charges for helping her ex-boss pull off his epic, $17.5 billion fraud and profiting handsomely from it.

“Her age and her usually small stature might also put her in a vulnerable position in a prison facility,” said Swain, referring to the short, frumpy, 4-foot-6-inch Bongiorno, who was given a special chair to accommodate her lack of stature during the trial.

Still, “Ms. Bongiorno chose to put her life, and put the lives of others, in the wrong hands,” Swain acknowledged. “She did so voluntarily, and in choosing to believe Madoff’s explanations instead of acknowledging the plain truth of her own actions and those of her co-workers, she committed despicable crimes.”

The judge ordered the convict to forfeit more than $155 billion in restitution to the government, a symbolic amount that essentially ensures she’ll be broke for life.

Swain said she believed Bongiorno was unaware of the Ponzi scheme but “willfully blinded” herself to the fact that she was assisting a crook.

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Bernie MadoffPhoto: Getty Images

Bongiorno — who the feds say backdated phony trades, deceived auditors and federal regulators and committed other crimes — claimed at trial that she was a naïve high school graduate who was duped by a slick-talking Wall Street “rock star” immediately after she began working for him nearly five decades ago.

Her lawyer, Roland Riopelle, even showed jurors a 1988 photo under the title “Bernie Madoff as Annette saw him” that captured the Ponzi king sitting regally atop a horse with wind blowing through his tousled hair.

A teary-eyed Bongiorno apologized to Madoff’s victims, adding she was duped by him like they were.

She said her biggest mistake in life was to trust her ex-boss.

“He was my teacher and my superior,” Bongiorno told the judge. “I did what I was told. I did not know what was going on. He never confided in me. He never said I was breaking the law.

“Madoff never asked my permission to use me the way he did,” Bongiorno added. “He knew I was not capable of figuring out his scheme on my own.

He took advantage of that.

“I will be haunted by my shame for the rest of my life. I have lost so much.”
Bongiorno must also spend a year of supervised release after her prison sentence is over.

Bongiorno was found guilty in March by a federal jury in Manhattan, along with four other former Madoff cronies. Their five-month, white-collar trial was one of the longest in New York’s history.

Swain on Monday sentenced former Madoff operations chief Daniel Bonventre, 67, to 10 years in prison for his role in the epic fraud.

Computer programmer Jerome O’Hara, 51, is expected to be sentenced later Tuesday. Computer programmer George Perez, 48, will be sentenced Wednesday, and former Madoff account manager Joann Crupi, 53, is being sentenced Dec. 15.

Perez and O’Hara are alleged to have developed computer programs to help Madoff manufacture false books and other records.

Riopelle had asked Swain to sentence his client to no more than eight to 10 years in prison — so he actually got a lesser sentence for his client than he asked for.

Prosecutors asked Swain to throw the book at Bongiorno, saying she should get a harsher sentence than the 20-year prison term recommended by the US Probation Office. Bongiorno actually faced up to life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

The 11-person jury unanimously voted “guilty” on each of the 31 separate charges, some of which only applied to certain defendants. During the trial, they heard testimony from more than 40 witnesses and reviewed roughly 1,600 government exhibits.

Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the scheme in 2009 and has claimed he acted alone. The sentencings are taking place nearly six years to the day that Madoff surrendered to authorities on Dec. 11, 2008.

Eight other Madoff ex-staffers have pleaded guilty to assisting their crooked ex-boss, including former finance chief Frank DiPascali, who was the centerpiece of the prosecution’s case.

Former Madoff clients claim they lost more than $17 billion through the Ponzi scheme. A court-appointed trustee has recovered much of the money by forcing those customers who received big payouts from Madoff to return the funds.

After the fraud was revealed in December 2008, Madoff admitted that the nearly $68 billion he claimed then existed in his company accounts was actually only a few hundred million dollars.

http://nypost.com/2014/12/09/madoff-...small-stature/