A Manhattan federal court judge last week granted Bernie Madoff’s former secretary—who is also a borough native—the opportunity to drive to the Florida prison in which she will serve her six-year sentence, according to published reports.
Judge Loretta Taylor Swain last Friday gave the green light to Annette Bongiorno’s request to have her husband escort her by car to Federal Correctional Institution Coleman after she filed court documents detailing her intense fear of flying, according to the New York Daily News. The 66-year-old Howard Beach-raised Bongiorno is due to report to the prison later this week.
Bongiorno and three other employees of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC were convicted last March of securities fraud, falsifying books and records, and conspiracy. In addition to the six-year prison term, Bongiorno was also ordered to forfeit more than $155 billion, including specific bank accounts and real estate, representing property traceable to Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme. Swain also imposed a term of two years of supervised release following Bongiorno’s completion of her sentence.
According to the allegations in the superseding indictment, other court documents, and the evidence presented at trial, Bongiorno, an employee in the investment advisory business for 40 years, managed hundreds of investment advisory accounts purportedly having a cumulative balance of approximately $8.5 billion as of Nov. 30, 2008. Bongiorno also supervised employees who worked for the investment advisory business, and was for many years the head of the fraudulent investment business.
In imposing her sentence, Swain said that Bongiorno’s “work was integral to the success of the unspeakable fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff,” and thereby “destroyed or at least chipped away at the foundation of innocent investors’ dreams.”
In 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for hatching and masterminding the multi-billion dollar scheme.
By Michael V. Cusenza
