Bernie Madoff sure liked ‘em clueless.
The notorious fraudster’s longtime secretary claimed ignorance on the witness stand Thursday, saying she “never heard of a Ponzi scheme” until it was described to her by a co-worker hours after Madoff was busted by the feds in December 2008.
Annette Bongiorno also told a Manhattan federal jury that her biggest worry was she’d be hit with a huge income tax bill when she was ordered — a day before Madoff’s Dec. 11, 2008 arrest — to close out all of the company staffer and family members’ investment-advisory accounts with the firm.
“My first thought was, ‘What, am I going to have to pay all the taxes on it in one year?’ ” said Bongiorno, who then had $ 50 million in the account and is one of the five ex-staffers on trial for fraud.
“I didn’t know Madoff Securities was about to collapse. I had no clue,” she added when asked whether the odd request by Madoff and his CFO-turned-government informant Frank DiPascali raised any red flags.
DiPascali, who copped a plea to fraud charges and testified against Bongiorno and the other ex-staffers, would approach the secretary a day after Madoff’s arrest and say, “Don’t worry. I will protect you,” she recalled.
“I said, ‘Protect me from what? What are you protecting me from?!’ ” the pint-sized pepperpot exclaimed.
While being cross-examined by Assistant US Attorney John Zach, Bongiorno continued to contend that she was duped by a Wall Street “rock star” just as thousands of more educated and sophisticated people were for decades – and that any wrongdoings she might have committed were done blindly by following orders from a boss she knew and trusted for 40 years.
She claimed even not knowing simple terms in the securities industry like “treasury bonds,” “Dow Jones average” and “S&P 500.”
However, Zach put her on the spot when he poked at her previous testimony about living a modest lifestyle despite being a multimillionaire. He flashed photos of a Bentley sedan and a $ 6.5 million condo in Florida that she had purchased with her earnings.
“It was one of my cars, but the feds took it away,” Bongiorno said of the Bentley.
When asked if she had any others, she said, “Yeah, two Mercedes.”
Zach also confronted her about why she “didn’t tell” the feds during a January 2009 sitdown that she doctored three years worth of account statements for a now-defunct Florida firm, Avellino and Bienes, which was shut down in the early 1990s following a Securities and Exchange Commission probe. The firm – which Zach said came up during Bongiorno’s 2009 interview – had collected customer funds and invested it in Madoff’s scheme.
After he pointed to repeated paperwork showing her handwriting doctoring earlier account entries, he questioned how she could leave such a key fact out during the interview.
“[Madoff] told me what to do,” she said. “If I didn’t say [anything], it was because I forgot. I was scared!”
Although feisty most of the day, Bongiorno broke down in tears when she asked by her lawyer, Roland Riopelle, about a wedding she attended for a friend’s daughter only weeks after Madoff’s arrest. It was also attended by many investors who lost big bucks once the $ 17 billion Ponzi scheme was uncovered.
“I was totally uncomfortable,” she said “I felt so bad for them, and I was embarrassed.”
Prosecutors say Bongiorno pocketed more than $ 14 million in fraudulent profits through a scheme and oversaw the investment-advisory unit at the center of Madoff’s scheme.
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