That's how Bongiorno viewed her boss before the world learned Madoff ran a scam that stole an estimated $20 billion from thousands of investors, said attorney Roland Riopelle. Then he displayed a New York Magazine image that depicted Madoff as the malevolent Joker character from a recent Batman movie.
"That's how he really was," Riopelle told jurors.
The dramatic illustration summed up the central defense argument of Bongiorno and four former co-workers accused of knowingly participating in and profiting from the massive fraud.
"Mrs. Bongiorno relied on Mr. Madoff, and she was fooled by him," said Riopelle, who characterized the longtime aide who helped oversee accounts for her boss' most senior clients as another "victim of the fraud."
The argument came in the closing days of a trial that began in early October and represents the first Madoff-related criminal proceeding to be heard by a jury. Madoff pleaded guilty after his scam collapsed in December 2008. He's now serving a 150-year prison term.
The former co-workers similarly face potential sentences of decades behind bars if convicted following jury deliberations expected to start as soon as Friday. Along with Bongiorno, they include ex-Madoff operations manager Daniel Bonventre, JoAnn Crupi, who oversaw the bank account for the investment business, and former Madoff computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez.
The March 2, 2009 New York magazine cover's representation of Bernard Madoff as the Joker from Batman.(Photo: New Yo! rk Magazine)
Riopelle focused part of his closing argument questioning prosecution evidence that showed Bongiorno collected a six-figure salary and owned a Madoff investment account that purportedly held $50 million.
"What matters is what she knew," not her finances, argued Riopelle.
He noted that Frank DiPascali, the former Madoff financial lieutenant who pleaded guilty and testified against his former co-workers drained his investment account and had a $5 million negative balance when the scam collapsed.
"That, ladies and gentlemen, is the act of a man who knew it was a fraud," Riopelle told jurors.
In contrast, Bongiorno left what seemed to be a fortune in her account, said Riopelle, who argued that behavior supported her innocent plea. The purported riches "went up in smoke" after Madoff's arrest and confession, he said.
Earlier Tuesday, O'Hara defense attorney Gordon Mehler challenged the significance of a 2006 note the former Madoff computer programmer wrote in his personal notebook. Prosecutors argued the note, in which O'Hara wrote "I will not lie anymore," appeared to show he knew about the fraud.
But Mehler showed that the statement appeared to refer to lies O'Hara told to Madoff when asked about progress on a computer programs the financier needed to doctor financial records. Trial evidence showed O'Hara and Perez had deleted the programs from the office computer system without Madoff's knowledge.
Mehler described the programmers' action as a "courageous" decision that helped prove their innocence.
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