Legal News

Bon Jour, Bongiorno: Other Names Emerging in Madoff Case

By Ashby Jones

Ever since December, we’ve been waiting for other shoes to drop in the Bernie Madoff fraud case. Now, the wait may be coming to an end.

News has broken that a longtime aide to Madoff, Annette Bongiorno, instructed two assistants to generate trading tickets, now believed to be bogus, for Madoff’s investing clients, according to information the assistants gave the government in the investigation. Click here for the story, from the WSJ’s Amir Efrati.

The assistants, Semone Anderson and Winnie Jackson, told prosecutors that Bongiorno, a four-decade veteran of the Madoff firm, would ask them to research daily share prices for blue-chip stocks from the previous month or several months. Using the data of past share prices, Bongiorno would then instruct the assistants to generate “tickets” showing purported trades, which resulted in gains that were in line with Madoff’s steady annual returns, this person said.

Bongiorno wasn’t reached for comment. Such fact-gathering doesn’t mean that prosecutors will determine there was any criminal liability. No employees of the Madoff firm have been accused of wrongdoing, save for Madoff.

The development comes as Madoff signaled last week that he will plead guilty to numerous crimes during a scheduled hearing in federal court on Thursday, people familiar with the case say. Madoff’s attorney, Ira Sorkin, declined to comment.

If Thursday’s hearing goes as planned, prosecutors will be able to devote more time to other people who might have been involved in the alleged fraud. Though Madoff has told prosecutors he acted alone, his account is doubted by investigators, given the scope and the duration of the alleged fraud, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors also have begun interviewing employees from a group that was separate from Ms. Bongiorno and oversaw accounts for many of Madoff’s institutional accounts. That group was headed by Frank DiPascali Jr., 52, who hasn’t yet been asked to speak with prosecutors, according to a person familiar with the matter. DiPascali’s lawyer declined to comment on his client’s behalf.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).