One of Bernard Madoff’s trusted former workers got an early lump of coal for Christmas this morning from a judge who revoked her bail and ordered her to surrender to US Marshals.
Annette Bongiorno — who allegedly pocketed $14.5 million through her boss’s Ponzi scheme — surrendered to marshals in West Palm Beach, Fla., this afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Manhattan federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain said Bongiorno has an “abundance of unrestricted assets” that could help her flee conspiracy charges that could send her to prison for life, Manhattan federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain said.
The ruling came after defense lawyers yesterday submitted sealed financial statements for both Bongiorno and her husband, Rudy, a former city worker who retired on disability.
Bongiorno’s lawyers previously acknowledged that she was sitting on $2.4 million in cash and stocks from her four decades working for Madoff.
Swain also rejected a defense proposal that Bongiorno, 62, be allowed to drive herself north from Florida — where she’s been under house arrest since getting busted last month — due to a fear of flying.
Prosecutors sought to have Bongiorno locked up after she was unable to find friends and relatives with sufficient assets to secure her $5 million bond.
Defense lawyers immediately filed papers with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a stay of Swain’s order pending a review by the higher court. It rejected their request.
Outside court, lawyer Maurice Sercarz said he didn’t know what plans Bongiorno had made for the holidays, but that “Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa — she didn’t want to go in (to jail).”
“The process has been excruciating for her,” he said.
With AP