The former chief financial officer for disgraced financier Bernard Madoff told a judge Tuesday that he helped Madoff “carry out a fraud that hurt thousands of people.”
Frank DiPascali pleaded guilty in federal court to 10 charges including securities fraud, falsifying records and international money laundering in a cooperation deal.
The charges carry a potential penalty of up to 125 years in prison, but the cooperation will probably bring leniency.
DiPascali apologized for his actions and says he followed Madoff too loyally since 1975.
He says the transactions were “all fake. It was all fictitious. It was wrong, and I knew it was wrong at the time.”
Madoff is serving 150 years in prison for a Ponzi scheme that demolished thousands of people’s life savings, wrecked charities and shook confidence in the financial system.
Customers have described DiPascali as their main contact with Madoff’s firm.
Madoff is imprisoned at a facility in Butner, N.C. and has reportedly had a hard time getting used to his new digs. Two attorneys who interviewed Madoff said he seemed distraught, and appeared gaunt. They said his blood pressure was high and his ankles looked swollen.
Despite the rough adjustment, Madoff told the attorneys that his fellow inmates were treating him like a celebrity.
“According to him they’re constantly asking him for autographs. He’s the biggest swindler in the country thrust in with a lot of people that have never seen the kind of money he was in touch with every day,” attorney Nancy Fineman said.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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4 Responses
Fellow readers, any investment that promises returns over 7 percent must be judged risky. Period. Madoff paid out some 12 percent year after year. That in itself should have been a reminder of the risk factor. I wonder when I can quote “Ayn Mirachamim al HaShoteh” without sounding insensitive to those that lost money with Madoff.
#1 – Such a comment has no place here and anywhere. A little sensitivity is certianly in order. (And btw, Stop giving financial advice.)
#2-why? (and btw…why not?)
Hey #1, Many people are asking “How could we have known …” (about Madoff), I am suggesting what any financially educated person will answer.
7% is the line between an investment and speculation. I am a lawyer, I am 53 and I lost money in my younger days in such ‘investments’. I was promised 16% with my Chasunah money with unzerur menschin… enough said. If even one young person reads this idea of 7% and remembers it, I know I did the right thing. It is ok to speculate, but it must not be called an investment. Retirement money with a promised 12% return? Should never be done.