Working for Bernie Madoff meant never having to say, “I’m thirsty,” for one wine-loving former staffer.
Joann Crupi, a former account manager who is one of five ex-Madoff staffers on trial for profiting from his epic Ponzi scheme, racked up tens of thousands of dollars in expenses on a company credit card for wine and lavish cruises and other trips that included first-class accommodations for her and her family in Las Vegas and Disney World, a former company staffer testified on Monday.
Citing Madoff Securities’ records provided by the feds, Charlene White, a former data-entry operator there, confirmed 22 separate wine purchases totaling nearly $10,000 that Crupi made over a 32-month period from June 2005 to January 2008.
Nearly all the vino – including $1,750 worth purchased in November 2005 – was bought at the Springfield Township, NJ-based Wine Library retail shop, which is roughly five miles from Crupi’s home in Westfield, NJ.
“Did you observe Ms. Crupi ever handing out nearly $2,000 in wine [at work] for any Thanksgiving day celebration?” Assistant US Attorney John Zach asked White in Manhattan federal court.
“No,” answered White, who added that Crupi’s expenses were always paid off no-questions asked.
According to an SEC complaint, Crupi racked up $270,000 in expenses on the company’s AMEX card between 2004 and 2008 — and wired $2.25 million to her outside bank account in 2008 so she could purchase a Jersey Shore beach house.
White also testified that Crupi used the company card over the 32-month period so she and family members could hit Vegas eight times and also take at least two trips to Disney World and two cruises out of Florida.
The tens of thousands of dollars spent on the trips included the costs of airline tickets, top hotels and rental-car fees. The expenses included more than $5,400 for an October 2007 stay at the Marriot Hotel in Orlando, Fla; $5,454 for a cruise in March 2005 and nearly $4,000 in Feb. 2006 for plane tickets and accommodations at the Las Vegas Marriot.
Crupi’s lawyer, Eric Breslin, repeatedly objected to Zach’s questioning of White, saying she’s not qualified to know what a legitimate business expense is. White did admit while being cross-examined that Madoff had a reputation of being very generous to his workers.
The other ex-Madoff workers on trial are Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for the firm; former secretary Annette Bongiorno; and computer programmers Jerome O’Hara and George Perez.
White testified that Bonventre had the company directly reimburse tens of thousands of dollars in personal credit card expenses racked up by him and his wife. This included $10,471 in 2006 for accommodations at the Isle de France in St. Barthelemy.
White was the second witness offered by the government in what is expected to be a five-month trial.
The first was Theodore Cacioppi, the FBI agent who arrested Madoff in December 2008. He told the jury on Monday that the feds didn’t secure or “quarantine” any portion Madoff’s offices of the so-called Lipstick Building in Midtown until five days later.
He said there was legitimate business being conducted on the 18th and 19th floors but that Madoff used the 17th floor to conduct “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.”
Cacioppi also said he was faced with a dilemma: how to remove the millions of documents from Madoff’s office?
“We had…three pickup trucks and a trailer half the size of an 18-wheeler that wouldn’t even come close” to what would be required to remove all the boxes of documents,” he added.
Investigators eventually decided to just keep everything sealed and under lock and key on the 17th floor.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton.