Madoff's (Shady) Millionaire Secretary

by Allan Dodds Frank Info

Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime stories. He also is the former president of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.

Bernie's unassuming assistant allegedly pocketed $14 million, and tomorrow must show where her loot is hidden—or face jail. Allan Dodds Frank on the loyalist's defiant stance.

Almost as soon as Bernie Madoff's massive fraud was revealed two years ago, authorities moved to gain the cooperation of someone they felt was a linchpin in the operation: Annette Argese Bongiorno, the short, fat, now 62-year-old executive assistant who had served the Ponzi King for 40 years.

Yet Bongiorno has remained steadfastly defiant and resistant to offers from the prosecutors, even as other Madoff lieutenants have cut deals with the government. Tomorrow, her defiance may send her straight to jail.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Facing 75 years, an air of unreality surrounds Bongiorno's antagonistic behavior. For most of the past two years, she rejected entreaties from prosecutors because she apparently did not understand—as her former Queens neighbor, Madoff operations chief Frank DiPascali did— that no one close to Bernie would ever get better than a reduced prison term.

Instead, until the government succeeded in getting a partial forfeiture order last summer, Bongiorno and her husband swanned around South Florida in her Bentley or the couple's his-and-hers Mercedes Benz sedans, angering authorities.

And, at least until last week, Bongiorno may have thought that somehow she was going be able to keep some of the $14 million she collected while employed on the dark side of Bernie's operation. That fantasy was shattered when prosecutors demanded her immediate imprisonment because she remains more than $2 million short of posting a $5 million bail.

This failure to post bail has evolved into a circus sideshow involving the government's hunt for $2.4 million in Annette's bank accounts and perhaps millions of dollars more she shifted to her husband Rudy, who retired on full disability as a New York City transportation department electrician more than a decade ago. Unless she submits a list of all the couple's liquid assets to U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain by late today, she will almost certainly be put under arrest by federal marshals by 4 p.m. tomorrow at her $1.25 million home in a Boca Raton, Fla. country club development. At this point, says her attorney, Maurice Sercarz, Bongiorno is electing to take her chances in a criminal trial—"the government is offering her the equivalent of life in prison"—although she knows her old pal DiPascali will be a star witness against her.

"This case has been portrayed as being all black and white and my client is wearing a black hat," Sercarz tells The Daily Beast. "I have got to change that perception and I am more concerned about that than the millions of documents that the government has."

Until last week, Bongiorno may have thought that somehow she was going be able to keep some of the $14 million she collected while employed on the dark side of Bernie's operation.

Woodfield Country Club House where Annette Bongiorno, former secretary of Bernie Madoff, lives currently under federal house arrest in Boca Raton, FL. (Photo by Alexia Fodere / Landov)

Those documents—covered with Annette's fingerprints and handwriting—tell the intriguing story that starts shortly after she graduated from John Adams High School in Ozone Park, Queens, N.Y in July 1968.

"Annette was hired (by Bernie) at a very young age and knew nothing about the stock market," Sercarz says. "She had nothing to compare it with either."

Soon, authorities say, she was recruiting investors, falsifying documents and working hard to keep Madoff investors happy—and in the dark. Bongiorno fended off questions to Bernie from investors who telephoned, sent them checks and assured them their investments with Bernie were safe and sound. From the firm's secretive 17th floor, authorities say, she was cooking up their account statements with fake securities and stock trades at Madoff's direction.

12 December 20, 2010 | 2:23am Twitter Email Share var OutbrainPermaLink=document.location.href.replace(document.location.search, '').replace(/\/\d+\/$/,'/').replace(document.location.host, 'thedailybeast.com'); if(OutbrainPermaLink.search(/blogs-and-stories/)>=0){ OutbrainPermaLink += "full/"; } var OB_Template = "The Daily Beast"; var OB_demoMode = false; var OBITm = "1255455386150"; var OB_langJS ='http://widgets.outbrain.com/lang_en.js'; if ( typeof(OB_Script)!='undefined' ) OutbrainStart(); else { var OB_Script = true; var str = ''; document.write(str); } Madoff, Business, Annette Bongiorno, Jail, Frank Dipascali, Bernie Madoff  (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies Sort Up Sort Down sort by date: kscr14

This women may be low as low, but, to describe her as short and fat, was, low.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply | (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies 3:17 am, Dec 20, 2010 tomcat2010

Um, she is fat. Get over it.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 5:44 am, Dec 20, 2010 moqueuo

i completely agree. as a writer, it is his duty to describe this woman's horrendous actions and behaviors, but it was unnecessary to go so low as to use the words he did. this only shows us, the readers, the limitation of the writer's mind and character.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply | (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies 5:47 am, Dec 20, 2010 jacquelinezr

Ditto.

Flag It | Permalink 11:16 am, Dec 20, 2010 Cpriestess

You can always tell someone who has lived a thin life, they are the ones who label fat as a character flaw. It's not. It's a challenge, like predisposition to alcoholism.

Flag It | Permalink 1:10 pm, Dec 20, 2010 snafina

ksr, you read this whole article and your only comment is that it's politically incorrect to comment on her morbid obesity? Wow!

Flag It | Permalink | Reply | (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies 8:42 am, Dec 20, 2010 Jeffin90019

That's what I thought. This short fat woman helped Bernie ruin the lives of thousands of people, yet it is somehow improper to point out that this proud, unrepetentent, greedy crook IS in fact short and fat. The author left off "ugly," which is also apt, since she looks like Norman Mailer in drag.

Flag It | Permalink 1:10 pm, Dec 20, 2010 Floxxx

Agree, kscr14. Bernie is never described as jowly and hawk-nosed. Nor Ezera Merkin as obese and bald. LOTS of unnattractive people involved in this mess. Pure misogyny.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 8:55 am, Dec 20, 2010 jacquelinezr

I agree. The story on its own shows was a despicable, greedy, unethical pig she is. The writer doesn't have to lose credibility and class by making such a nasty remark. Hey, she's already gross -- but not because of the weight.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 11:16 am, Dec 20, 2010 flyoverland

Bernie must pay better than Buffet who is so cheap that his secretary isn't even in the top tax bracket, apparently. I'm really getting sick of hear that canard.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 11:20 am, Dec 20, 2010 backfires

I am so happy karma is making a comeback and all the men and women who lied to investors while they stole their money are feeling the edge of the sword. I am happy they are retrieving what they can so that investors can have something back from their life savings.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply | (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies 4:13 am, Dec 20, 2010 jacquelinezr

Well, it opens everyone's eyes that these professional criminals don't get to get away with it -- that they'll pay for their crimes just like they would if they were poor and knocking off a 7-eleven.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 11:17 am, Dec 20, 2010 tomcat2010

The writing is on the wall: This troglodyte and her husband are going to have to return the money, or go to jail for a long, long, long time. There's no way in hell she's going to be able to cop as an unwitting secretary. Nobody pays a secretary $14M unless they have a lot of secrets to hide.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply | (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies 5:43 am, Dec 20, 2010 Southpaw

Bongiorno took $14 million from Madoff's racketeering operation. Any word if the income was declared to the IRS and her taxes owing duly paid?

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 8:14 am, Dec 20, 2010 jacquelinezr

I like that word -- troflodyte... Touche!

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 11:18 am, Dec 20, 2010 tomcat2010

You've gotta give the prosecutors some credit here. Bongiorno and her husband can't post bail without tapping into her ill-gotten gains and, if she does that, the feds are going to discover where it's coming from (probably a Swiss bank account). So, she's stuck between a rock and a hard place. Boo hoo. Let's see if a little jail time shakes her "defiance".

Flag It | Permalink | Reply | (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies 5:52 am, Dec 20, 2010 Southpaw

I expect there was indeed a money trail to off-shore accounts for favored Madoff clients (& family?).

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 8:08 am, Dec 20, 2010 snafina

tom - I'm hoping for both: jail and destitution. This woman deserves to enjoy her final years in prison.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 8:44 am, Dec 20, 2010 bobzaguy

"she's stuck between a rock and a hard place..." hahaha - this is choice! The "Rock" here is the $2.5m mansion in NY and the "Hard Place" is the $1.5m "slum" in FL.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 10:49 am, Dec 20, 2010 jacquelinezr

You know, it must be awful to go to jail when you're young and relatively strong and healthy. But to go to jail when you're older???? Oh, that a whole other hell... Well, she broke the law and helped con people... She deserves life in jail. And you know, her husband had to know what was going on. Lord, a secretary NEVER makes that amount of money! People just shut up and hogged up the money --- but they knew there was something illegal going on.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 11:21 am, Dec 20, 2010 Cpriestess

She knew what she was doing from pretty early in her Madoff career. She, like Bernie deserves everything she has coming to her. Fact is if I had been her I would have put most of the dough in off-shore accounts so there is no way she is not a flight risk. And of all the hubris, reimbursing friends that Bernie ripped off. Illustrates the point that she knew what she did was wrong. Throw away the key.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 1:12 pm, Dec 20, 2010 dalton

Good lord, here we have a woman who was instrumental in bilking untold thousands of people out their life savings, and the main thrust of many comments here is that the writer called her fat...and that was uncalled for. Here's my take: She's a disgusting, corrupt, liar who should rot in hell for doing what she did to so many innocent people. Oh, and she's fat.

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