About three weeks ago, Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") wrote about Annette Bongiorno, Bernie Madoff's former long-time secretary, in the post Annette Bongiorno, Madoff Aide Falls Under Suspicion. On Monday March 9th 2009, Ms. Bongiorno is back in the news on the front page of the Markets section of The Wall Street Journal.

In the article entitled Madoff Aide Allegedly Got Fake 'Tickets' of Trading, WSJ reporter Amil Efrati reveals that Ms. Bongiorno allegedly directed two assistants to create the bogus trading "tickets." These tickets documented the purported trades, which in turn resulted in gains that were in line with Mr. Madoff's steady annual returns.

"The two assistants to Ms. Bongiorno, Semone Anderson and Winnie Jackson, did clerical work and helped generate stock-trade confirmations for client accounts, which purported to show gains that were later applied to client accounts. The confirmations are now believed to have been fictitious, according to a court-appointed trustee who is liquidating the Madoff firm. Ms. Bongiorno, 60 years old, was once Mr. Madoff's personal secretary and later oversaw some of the firm's oldest accounts. The two assistants were interviewed by the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York through what are called proffer agreements, in which prosecutors agree not to use their statements against them as long as they tell the truth, according to people familiar with the matter."

Given that Ms. Bongiorno apparently also actively raised funds for the Madoff fraud from her neighbors in Queens New York, this new information highly suggests to Toomre Capital Markets LLC that Ms. Bongiorno will likely be facing some criminal penalties of her own. Surely, if she was ordering the creation of bogus trade tickets, she must have known for some period that Bernie Madoff's investment operation was a scam. If she further profited from fees received from managing so-called "RuAnn" feeder accounts for friends from her old neighborhood, federal prosecutors are likely to come down on her hard. Of course, though, she might have some juicy information about the possible participation of say Ruth Madoff, Peter Madoff and/or either of the sons, Andy or Mark Madoff that just might mitigate her criminal penalties.

This WSJ article also reveals that Federal prosecutors have recently turned their attention to a separate group that handled many of the institutional investment accounts mired in the Madoff fraud. "That group was headed by Frank DiPascali Jr., 52, who hasn't yet been asked to speak with prosecutors, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. DiPascali's lawyer declined to comment on his client's behalf. Mr. DiPascali referred to himself as the "director of options trading" at the firm and Mr. Madoff told investors he executed trades, despite the fact that a court-appointed trustee found that no trading occurred for at least the past 13 years. Prosecutors have asked at least three employees who worked under Mr. DiPascali about his role in the firm, according to a person familiar with the matter. The employees, Eric Lipkin, JoAnn Crupi and Robert Cardile, who is Mr. DiPascali's brother-in-law, also had proffer agreements with prosecutors."

The Tuesday February 27th 2009 edition of The Telegraph (London) contains an article entitled Madoff Aide Falls Under Suspicion written by James Quinn. This article concerns one Annette Bongiorno, who served as a long-time employee to Bernie Madoff and who apparently was active in recruiting friends and associates from her former Howard Beach neighborhood in the borough Queens as investors in the Madoff investment scheme.

Apparently Annette (Argese) Bongiorno lived next door to Frank DiPascali, Bernie's chief assistant and self-proclaimed chief financial officer of Madoff's investment operation. She started working for Bernard Madoff Investment Securities sometime during the 1980s when there were no more than three dozen employees and the firm was located downtown near Wall Street. During those early years, Mrs. Bongiorno was Bernie Madoff's personal secretary as well as performing various clerical duties, particularly for long-time investors with Bernie.

In more recent years, Mrs. Bongiorno apparently moved to a house worth $2.6m in Manhasset, Long Island. Her husband Rudy is a retired electrician. One might reasonably wonder how a former secretary and city electrician might be able to afford such a relatively expensive property. Perhaps it was due to the compensation from running what were known as "RuAnn" accounts? What management fees and/or commissions were paid to this couple for the funds that their friends and associates invested with Madoff? Were those fees ever disclosed to anyone?

Late on Friday January 23rd 2009 Reuters reports that at least two customers, who deposited their funds with Bernie Madoff just days prior to his fraud admission, will have those funds segregated from the other monies recovered for distribution to other investors. These funds will remain segregated until these recent investors' judicial claims to be treated differently are resolved.

For those who do not recall, New York fuel company businessman Martin Rosenman wired $10 million on December 5th to JP Morgan Chase for the account of Madoff's firm. This was six days before Bernie Madoff was arrested by the FBI. Mr. Rosenman claims to have been told directly by Bernie Madoff that he could wire the funds early, but his funds would not be invested until the start of the next month when Madoff's investment fund next would be open for investments. Mr. Rosenman apparently received a fax back from some member of Madoff's investment management unit acknowledging receipt of the wire transfer.

Miami business man Stanley Kriegler through his firm Hadleigh Holdings LLC appears to have had a similar experience. He deposited $1 million of funds in a Madoff firm account on December 8th at the same bank. He too apparently received receipt acknowledging that the transfer had been completed.

Both of these Madoff investors are represented by lawyer Howard Kleinhendler. In lawsuits respectively filed on January 1st and 7th against the trustee, lawyer Irving Picard, hired by SIPC and JP Morgan Bank, Mr. Klienhendler argued that these monies could be "traced because it was deposited soon before Madoff's assets were frozen." The cases are Rosenman Family LLC v Picard et al 09-01000 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and Hadleigh Holdings LLC v Picard et al 09-01005.

"To the extent funds are transferred from the Chase Account to the Trustee, the Trustee shall withhold from distribution the amount of $10,000,000 until the merits of the (case) are adjudicated," the order in the Rosenman case entered Jan. 20 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York said. The same order was also applied to Hadleigh's $1 million, according to court documents.

Earlier on Friday January 23rd, Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") posted the article Investigators Work Backward On Madoff Fraud. This article discussed how investigators have been forced to work backwards to figure out who else could have assisted Bernie Madoff, who rather implausibly claims to have committed this fraud alone. Two of the figures that investigators have been focusing on include JoAnn "Jodi" Crupi and Frank DiPascali.

Care to guess the names of the Madoff firm employees that show up on the documentation filed with the Rosenman and Hadleigh Holdings lawsuits? Reader comments and thoughts are welcome.

The Friday January 23rd 2009 edition of The Wall Street Journal included an article entitled Probers Work Backward on Madoff written by Kara Scannell and Amir Efrati. This article summarizes the unusual case in the Bernie Madoff scandal where the principal figure was the first to confess to his criminal behavior. Normally, prosecutors and investigators work their way up the chain to the principle figure(s). In the Madoff case, they have been forced to work backwards to figure out who else could have helped Mr. Madoff, who said that he acted alone.

According to the article, the SEC recently issued subpoenas to a Madoff lieutenant, one JoAnn "Jodi" Crupi, and a brokerage firm affiliated with Mr. Madoff. Ms. Crupi is represented by lawyer Eric R. Breslin. Regulators are focused on documents about her compensation and her dealings with certain firm clients, including some charities. They also have asked for access to her personal computer. This last request makes Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") wonder whether regulators suspect that there were communications with clients from private e-mail accounts (as reportedly happened earlier in the timeline of this scandal).

Also, apparently regulators are preparing to issue a second subpoena to another Madoff associate, Frank DiPascali. He is represented by lawyer Marc Mukasey of the firm Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in New York. Mr. DiPascali has been reported to be Mr. Madoff's senior assistant (or even chief financial officer) and, according to Bloomberg News, investors' "Go-To" guy in the operation of the investment management business. According to investor Tim Murray of Minnesota, Mr. DiPascali was a “street-smart New Yorker” who fielded calls about the millions of dollars he entrusted to the firm. “To a Madoff customer with a discretionary account, he is the guy,” said Mr. Murray, 57, a real-estate developer. “There is nobody else.”

Ms. Crupi and Mr. DiPascali both worked on the now infamous 17th floor where the investment management portion of Bernie Madoff's business was kept separate from the broker/dealer market making operations. Like many who have learned of this fraud, authorities do not believe Mr. Madoff's assertion that he acted alone in pulling off such a large fraudulent scheme that seems to have stretched back at least three decades and involved literally thousands of investors. Those investors received monthly and quarterly account statements that are now believed to be fraudulent. One of the open questions is: Who helped Bernie Madoff prepare such detailed and ultimately fraudulent statements?