A Manhasset woman who worked as an assistant to Bernard Madoff reportedly testified in federal court on Monday that she was unaware that her former boss was operating a Ponzi scheme.
Annette Bongiorno, 65, who joined the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities firm in 1968, has been accused of overseeing the preparation of phony account statements documenting trades that never took place.
But according to reports, she said she did not think there was anything illegal about them.
“Did anyone ever suggest to you that there was something wrong with that practice,” asked her lawyer, Roland Riopelle, according to Reuters.
“The only person who ever suggested that to me was you,” she replied.
Bongiorno is one of five defendants on trial for aiding in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, but each has denied knowing any illegal activity took place. She and Daniel Bonventre, Madoff’s former director of operations, have been the only two to testify in their own defense during the trial.
Madoff, 75, pleaded guilty in 2009 to frauding investors out of $17 billion in losses. He is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence.
In her hour-long testimony, Bongiorno reportedly portrayed Madoff as being very generous with his employees.
According to Reuters, Madoff paid for Bongiorno’s honeymoon as his wedding gift to her and finding her mother a spot in a nursing home where she had initially been turned away.
“He said, in typical Bernard Madoff fashion, ‘I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse,’” she said, according to Reuters.
