Clerk testifies how she tracked stocks for Bernard Madoff statements
Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff leaves federal court in Manhattan in 2009 after agreeing to plead guilty to charges in a massive Ponzi scheme. He is now serving 150 years in a federal prison in North Carolina. Credit: AFP / Getty Images
A onetime clerical worker testified at the trial of five former aides to Bernard Madoff Wednesday that part of her job was to look up on a Bloomberg terminal historic stock prices that could be plugged into fictitious customer account statements.
Winifier Jackson said her boss, defendant Annette Bongiorno, an account manager and former secretary for Madoff, would tell her which stocks to look up, asking for prices "backdated" as much as a year at times to meet a predetermined goal.
"She had to make a profit or loss on a particular account based on what the customer requested or Bernard Madoff told her," Jackson testified in federal court in Manhattan.
Bongiorno, 65, of Manhasset, and four other Madoff officials are charged with conspiracy and securities fraud for allegedly helping Madoff fool clients and regulators. Investors lost an estimated $19 billion when the Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2008. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison.
In opening statements, Bongiorno's lawyer said she didn't understand the securities business and was convinced by Madoff that he was free to allocate profits and losses from his stock trading operation after the fact among clients as he wished.
The trial began last week, and is expected to last as long as five months.
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