Federal agents have arrested two trusted “back office” workers of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, authorities announced today.
“Joann ‘Jodi’ Crupi was arrested by the FBI this morning at her residence in Wesfield, NJ, and Annette Bongiorno was also arrested at her home in Boca Raton, Florida,” said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.
Both of these arrests took place without incident, he said. According to sources, charges in connection with the Madoff investment fraud will be unsealed in the Southern District of New York later today.
Crupi handled investor funds and kept track of the firm’s daily cash balance while Bongiorno was an office supervisor who allegedly sent out phony account statements.
Previously, prosecutors alleged Bongiorno, who began working for Madoff in 1968, “knowingly perpetuated” her boss’s con by lying to his investors about purported stock trades and fictitious profits.
In addition to an annual salary and bonuses that peaked at $623,580 in 2007, Bongiorno maintained her own Madoff “investment advisory” accounts from which she withdrew $14.5 million despite investing only $919,000, prosecutors allege.
“As everyone knows, Bernard Madoff perpetrated the largest financial fraud in history, but as we allege again today, others criminally assisted his epic crime. A house of cards is almost never built by one lone architect. As described in the superseding indictment, year after year, Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi protected and perpetuated the Madoff mirage, while putting very real money in their own pockets,” said Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara.
“Today’s arrests reflect the Government’s ongoing commitment to ensure that all of those who are criminally responsible for this fraud will be held accountable. Together with our law enforcement partners at the FBI and IRS, we will press on with this investigation, which remains very much ongoing.”
Prosecutors had also filed civil-forfeiture actions against Bongiorno and Crupi, who handled investor funds and kept track of the firm’s daily cash balance in June.
Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence for his crimes while authorities continue to seize and auction off his personal items in a bid to recoup the multi-billion-dollar losses his investors suffered.
Most recently, the 10.54-carat engagement ring worn by wife Ruth Madoff fetched $550,000 at a New York auction.