Two long-term employees of Bernard Madoff, who admitted to the largest investment scam in US history, worth 65 billion dollars, have been arrested as accomplices, prosecutors said Thursday. Annette Bongiorno, 62, who worked for Madoff for 40 years, and Joan Crupi, 49, who spent 25 years at Madoff Investment Securities, were arrested in Florida and New Jersey respectively.
Authorities allege the women knowingly participated in the fraud, pretending to execute non-existent trades for Madoff clients, basing the paperwork on prices listed in the Wall Street Journal and back-dating the trades so they could control the amount of gains in the clients' accounts.
When Madoff's firm was being reviewed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the years leading up to the scam's uncovering, Crupi "participated in creating numerous false and fraudulent books and records" in a bid to deceive investigators, prosecutors said. "As everyone knows, Bernard Madoff perpetrated the largest financial fraud in history, but as we allege again today, others criminally assisted his epic crime," said US Attorney Preet Bharara. "A house of cards is almost never built by one lone architect," he added.
Madoff was last year sentenced to 150 years in prison for his massive Wall Street fraud. Bharara said that for years the two women "protected and perpetuated the Madoff mirage, while putting very real money in their own pockets." "(Prosecutors) knew early on that a fraud of this scale could not have been the work of one person alone. Today's charges are further confirmation of that," he said. According to prosecutors, as accomplices in the Ponzi scheme, Bongiorno and Crupi benefited directly from it. Bongiorno allegedly withdrew 14 million dollars from investment accounts between 1975 and 2008, despite only investing 920,000 dollars during that time period. Crupi received payments of over 2.7 million dollars from Madoff directly out of the company's investor funds account, prosecutors said.
Madoff, 72, has insisted he acted alone, but six others, including an assistant, two executives, computer experts and a bookkeeper have also been arrested. Bongiorno and Crupi face up to 75 and 65 years in prison, respectively, for the crimes presented Thursday.