Bernie Madoff sure loved ‘em clueless.
The imprisoned-for-150-years 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 her boss was busted by the feds in December 2008.
Annnette 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 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 former CFO-turned-government cooperator Frank DiPascali raised any red flags with her.
DiPascali, who copped a plea to fraud charges and testified against her and the other ex-staffers, would approach Bongiorno 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 told jurors.
Under cross-examination, Assistant US Attorney John 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 she’d purchased with her earnings.
She later told her lawyer, Roland Riopelle, that the feds seized both of them, along with two Mercedes Benz cars and other high-priced items she owned.
“They took everything, Roland!,” she exclaimed. “What Bernie didn’t take, they did.”
Zach also pressed her on how it’s possible she didn’t know something crooked was up considering she “backdated” — and then sold — more than 10,800 shares of stock in Lehman Brothers she had in her Madoff company account to avoid big losses following the former banking giant’s historic collapse in September 2008.
“If [Madoff] told me to do it, I did it,” she said. “It didn’t raise any red flags. Everything was backdated.”
Zach also asked her why she “didn’t tell” the feds during a January 2009 sit-down 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 weeks after Madoff’s arrest. It was also attended by many investors who lost big bucks with Madoff 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 the scheme and oversaw the investment-advisory unit at the center of Madoff’s scheme.