Bernard “Bernie” Madoff is now 80 and is living a fairly contented life in federal prison. He is serving a 150-year sentence for defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. So far, his wife has left him, and his two sons have passed away (one by their own hand). The scandal is no more or less, a tragedy. When scandals become sticky: Annette Bongiorno.
When Madoff’s world was suspected in 2008 and then completely blew up in 2014, he did not go to jail alone. There were five others from his organization who fell with him. He had accomplices who knew what was going on and who was more than happy to fleece investors.
Annette Bongiorno
The question for this post is who was Annette Bongiorno and what did she know? She was Madoff’s personal secretary for almost 40 years, and when Madoff went down, Bongiorno was sentenced to six years in jail. She has now serviced four years and is eligible to be released to a home arrest as part of the new First Step Act. She is 70 and her health is not great.
When she was brought to trial, a trial that lasted six months, the former personal secretary maintained she was absolutely unaware that Madoff was a crook. However, at sentencing, the prosecutor described Bongiorno as “a pampered, a compliant and grossly overcompensated clerical worker who supervised other clerical workers with ferocious enthusiasm.”
The judge agreed with her and not with the prosecution. She has been described as a model prisoner, and the type of individual who is “an ‘old fashioned’ family-oriented person,” where she would benefit from early release because “it would permit her to see more of her extended family more often than she is able to do so now.”
It stands to reason. Her family can’t see much of her while she’s in jail! However, this situation demands a much more detailed ethical set of arguments.
The first question is clearly a matter of what did she know? The defense said that she knew nothing, and for 40 years she was simply a loyal, albeit over-compensated employee who happily supervised her staff like a dictator. It is rather hard to believe. Though the judge agreed with most of her defense, she still managed to get a sentence of six years because there was always doubt.
Forty years is a long time to be working for a crook without having a feeling, even an inkling that something is amiss. I am sure the judge felt the same way. As the Ponzi scheme unfolded, and people (and institutions) began questioning what happened to their money, or why couldn’t they access their money, did Bongiorno not once suspect fraud was taking place? She had direct access to Madoff and all of the top executives of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. She saw the fund grow to 4,800 clients and nearly $65 billion in presumed holdings and she had no idea that this huge fund could not pay off its investors?
Let us even assume she had no idea it was a Ponzi scheme, wasn’t it strange to her that when all that phony paperwork was being created that once later investors got in that they couldn’t get out? For years, she and a co-worker created false trades. Did she have no idea of what she was doing?
It has been stated for the public record that when Annette Bongiorno announced her retirement that Bernard Madoff “cursed and went nuts.” As an inducement for her to stay, he increased her annual salary from $200,000 to $342,000. Had this been a legitimate situation, and she was “just” an office manager, why wouldn’t have they graciously accepted her resignation and hired or promoted someone new? Or did she simply know too much, and Madoff was terrified to let her go?
And, she accepted the ridiculously high salary to keep driving her staff to generate false statements and to answer the phones deflecting the inevitable truth: it was all a scam. This seems to be rationalization at its best. She didn’t know, and she knew at the same time.
In the end, the association with Bernard Madoff cost her six years of year life, her reputation, and all the property and money she earned while working for the firm. Even when she is released, she will still be in jail. When scandals become sticky: Annette Bongiorno
