A lawyer for Bernard Madoff’s former longtime secretary told jurors Tuesday to follow the “Monopoly money” — particularly $50 million that his client thought she had saved in the company’s bogus investment business advisory account only to learn it didn’t exist when the feds busted the Ponzi monster in December 2008.
“[Annette] Bongiorno was certainly fooled by Bernie when it came to the money — but that proves nothing about her knowledge of the fraud,” said lawyer Roland Riopelle while delivering his closing statement to a Manhattan jury in the fraud trial of Bongiorno and four other ex-Madoff staffers.
While the feds have tried to use the massive account that Bongiorno thought she had built up over 40 years at Madoff Securities against her during the trial, Riopelle told jurors it helps illustrate that she was duped just as thousands of investors were.
He pointed out that she didn’t take money out during the months leading up to Madoff’s arrest, while Madoff’s top lieutenant, Frank DiPascali, spent like a drunken sailor and was overdrawn by $5 million from his company account.