Aiming to prove that was another of his many lies, federal prosecutors are preparing to try five former Madoff employees this week on a 10-count criminal conspiracy and fraud indictment.
The case, the product of five years of government investigation, is expected to offer the first detailed look inside the Ponzi scheme that fleeced an estimated $17 billion to $20 billion from charities, financial firms, retirees and small investors worldwide.
Who's Who: A look at the former employees and their charges
Four hundred potential jurors were summoned for Manhattan federal court screening early this month, but 163 were excused based on their answers to questionnaires prepared by prosecutors and defense lawyers.
Both sides questioned many of the remaining potential jurors last week, then prepared to resume the process Tuesday in hopes of moving to opening statements on Wednesday. The selection process has been slow because many potential jurors said it would be a hardship to serve on a trial forecast to last as long as five months.
Once empaneled, the jury will decide the legal fate of longtime Madoff secretary Annette Bongiorno, 64; Daniel Bonventre, 66, the former director of operations for Madoff's financial firm; and JoAnn Crupi, 52, who monitored the bank account through which billions of customer dollars flowed.
Sex: Feds allege Madoff was in love 'triangle'
Two former computer programmers for Madoff's firm, Jerome O'Hara, 50, and George Perez, 47, round out the defendant list.
Attorneys for the five argue that the former employees did nothing wrong and were among the thousands of Madoff's victims.
Many of Madoff's client victims were lulled into a false sense of security by eerily regular returns on their investments — only to be shocked later that the former Nasdaq chairman used some customers' ! money to pay others while he led a life that included luxury homes, expensive cars and almost unimaginable stolen wealth.
Madoff, who revealed the scam in December 2008 as the fraud teetered toward collapse, likely won't be in court to repeat any of his claims. He pleaded guilty in 2009 without standing trial. Now 75, he's serving a 150-year federal prison sentence at a medium-security federal prison in Butner, N.C.
But the defendants are expected to see someone familiar testify as federal prosecutors' key witness: Frank DiPascali, 57, Madoff's former chief financial officer. The Queens, N.Y., native waived indictment by a grand jury and pleaded guilty to 10 counts of conspiracy, fraud and other charges in August 2009.
"I'm standing here to say that from the early 1990s until December 2008, I helped Bernie Madoff and other people carry out a fraud," DiPascali said at his plea hearing.
DiPascali is expected to provide incriminating testimony against the five former employees, explaining in detail what he says each did and how the scam worked. In return, DiPascali hopes for leniency to spare him from much of the potential 125-year maximum prison term he faces for his guilty plea. Two other former Madoff employees and his firm's former outside accountant, all of whom have pleaded guilty, are also expected to testify for the prosecution.
U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who is presiding at the case, has barred evidence of the expensive homes, shopping sprees and other luxuries the defendants funded with the millions of dollars they collectively received from Madoff. But the judge indicated last month that she may permit evidence about sexual liaisons some of the defendants and witnesses carried out during the Ponzi scheme if prosecutors and defense lawyers are unable to reach an expected agreement to limit that information.
Regardless of the trial outcome, the world hasn't heard the final legal word on Madoff's scam. Late last month, investigators arrested and ch! arged Pau! l Konigsberg, 77, a long-time Madoff accountant from Connecticut, who allegedly helped hide the fraud scheme. He pleaded not guilty at a Sept. 26 hearing.
No comments:
Post a Comment