Madoff jury to pore over star witness
Panel requests to review testimony of Frank DiPascali
NEW YORK Initial jury deliberations in the fraud trial of five former Bernard Madoff employees ended for the day Monday after jurors asked to review the testimony of star prosecution witness Frank DiPascali.
The nine-woman-three-man panel made the request after several hours of deliberations that began when U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain completed legal instructions in the five-month trial and gave them the case shortly after noon.
Jurors also requested direct testimony by one defendant, for- mer Madoff operations manager Daniel Bonventre, as well as by Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz, who like DiPascali pleaded guilty in the huge Ponzi scheme and testified against their former co-workers.
The proceeding, among the longest white-collar crime trials in Manhattan federal court history, is the first Madoff-related case to reach a jury. The mastermind of the fraud that stole an estimated $20 billion from thousands of investors pleaded guilty without standing trial after the scheme imploded in December 2008.
Madoff, now 75, is serving a 150-year prison term at a federal penitentiary in North Carolina. The ex-employees face decades behind bars themselves if the jury finds them guilty on charges they knowingly participated in and profited from the fraud.
Along with Bonventre, 67, the defendants include: Annette Bon- giorno, 65, who handled the financier’s top clients; JoAnn Crupi, 52, who oversaw the company’s bank account; and former Madoff computer programmers Jerome O’Hara, 50 and George Perez, 48.
They pleaded innocent and in- sisted throughout the trial that they were unwittingly hoodwinked by Madoff into performing job assignments that enabled the scam to operate for decades.
The judge’s instructions included legal guidance on the concept of “conscious avoidance,” defined as someone deliberately closing their eyes “to what would otherwise be obvious.”
Bonventre and Bongiorno took the stand in their own defense, a decision that enabled them to express their perspectives directly to jurors — but also exposed them to cross-examination by prosecutors. Keenly aware of that legal risk, the other defendants opted not to take the witness stand.
Instead, much of the defense’s legal strategy focused on trying to raise doubts about the nearly 40 witnesses and dozens of exhibits presented by prosecutors.
The heart of the case for both sides was the relative credibility of DiPascali, the Mini-me to Madoff ’s Dr. Evil who was a manager of the disgraced financier’s investment advisory division in Manhattan. During weeks on the witness stand, DiPascali testified that Madoff never carried out the financial trading promised to investors and specifically linked each defendant to the fraud.
He faces a maximum 125-year prison term when he’s sentenced for his confession. However, he testified under a government cooperation agreement that could provide some leniency in return for aiding prosecutors.
Defense lawyers characterized DiPascali as a convicted perjurer who would say anything to lighten his expected sentence. But prosecutors stressed DiPascali would face additional charges and prison time if he lied under oath during the trial.