He was a regular George Constanza.
The relative of a top Bernie Madoff honcho worked for the notorious con man — but spent most of his time at the office sleeping under his desk, according to bombshell testimony on Wednesday that drew laughs from jurors in the Manhattan federal court trial of five ex-Madoff staffers accused of profiting from the epic Ponzi scheme.
“He would sleep during the day,” testified former Madoff controller and admitted fraudster Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz about Jeffrey Ferraro, stepson of Daniel Bonventre, a former Madoff Securities operations chief who is on trial.
“He would sleep by his desk, under his desk. It was going on for years.”
Cotellessa-Pitz — a government witness who copped a plea to falsifying company records and making bogus submissions to government regulators — said other co-workers complained about the work-time siestas by Ferraro, who she described as a longtime “backroom office worker.”
“He was unable to do his work in a timely fashion,” she said. “A lot of employees saw him sleeping. There were a lot of comments made about it.”
She also said Madoff and Bonventre were well aware of the matter — but did nothing.
“I saw [Madoff] look in at Jeff while he was sleeping,” Cotellessa-Pitz said.
Another revelation surfaced in Cotellessa-Pitz’s testimony, as she explained how a Staten Island man who won a $17 million lottery jackpot in 2007 might be the luckiest man on Earth.
Cotellessa-Pitz said that Barry Fleischmann was already investing in stocks through Madoff Securities when he struck it rich, so he approached Madoff about putting some of the winnings into the Ponzi villian’s investment advisory account.
“Mr. Madoff said he wanted all of it,” she testified. “Barry did not give it to him.
“After [Madoff Securities] collapsed in 2008, a lot of us said Barry Fleischman won the lottery twice.”
Besides Bonventre, also on trial are Madoff’s former secretary Annette Bongiorno, office worker Joann Crupi, and computer programmers George Perez and Jerome O’Hara.