Ex-Madoff aide Bongiorno loses bail, surrenders
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Annette Bongiorno, one of convicted swindler Bernard Madoff's longest serving employees, surrendered to authorities on Tuesday when she failed to make bail pending trial for her purported role in the massive fraud.
U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Bongiorno into jail after she and her lawyers had spent the month since her November 18 arrest on conspiracy and securities fraud charges trying to negotiate conditions of $5 million bail while she was under house arrest in Boca Raton, Florida.
The judge said at a bail hearing that Bongiorno, 62, was a flight risk. She worked at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC for 40 years, managed accounts and supervised some employees, according to U.S. prosecutors.
"For the reasons stated in court, the bail conditions previously set by the court is revoked," according to the record in Manhattan federal court.
A lawyer for Bongiorno said she surrendered to U.S. Marshals in Florida and was expected to be transferred to a jail in New York. Bongiorno owns multimillion dollar properties, one in each of those states.
"We intend to appeal the ruling," one of her lawyers, Maurice Sercarz, said. "We'll keep fighting to get Annette out and keep her out."
Last week, the court heard that Bongiorno would have to give up at least $2.4 million and her husband's money for her to meet bail conditions.
Madoff, 72, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in March 2009 to orchestrating what is considered the biggest investment fraud in history. U.S. prosecutors initially estimated the fraud took in about $65 billion over several decades.
Eight people have been criminally charged in the case, including Madoff, outside accountant David Friehling, longtime Madoff right-hand man Frank DiPascali, computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, operations manager Daniel Bonventre, Bongiorno and Jo Ann Crupi, who both managed accounts.
Friehling and DiPascali have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. The other five have pleaded not guilty. Of those, only Bongiorno has been denied bail.
A court-appointed trustee has put the amount of investors' money lost at about $20 billion. A settlement announced Friday boosted the amount of recovered funds to nearly $10 billion.
The case is USA v O'Hara, Perez, Bonventre, Crupi & Bongiorno, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 10-228.
(Reporting by Grant McCool)
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