Madoff secretary involved her HB neighbors

A longtime aide to confessed swindler Bernard Madoff actively drew her Howard Beach neighbors into what has proved to be the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time, according to published reports.
Annette Bongiorno, 60, reportedly grew up in Howard Beach, next door to Frank DiPascali, 52, who called himself Madoff’s chief financial officer.
A former Madoff employee, who requested anonymity, reportedly said that Bongiorno introduced DiPascali to the firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
“They were friends, like neighbors would be,” said Ann Casalotti, a resident of the house where Bongiorno had once lived, according to published reports.
Casalotti is reportedly one of thousands of Madoff customers whose name appeared on a list prepared for the trustee liquidating Madoff’s firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
According to reports, Bongiorno and her husband Rudy, a retired New York City electrician, recruited investors who held accounts designated “RuAnn” – short for Rudy and Annette – according to the employee, who said they kept in contact with their ex-neighbors.
The so-called “Picard list,” filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, includes five Madoff investors who lived at the same addresses or within half a block of the former homes of Bongiorno and DiPascali.
Half a dozen other investors in Howard Beach reportedly live within a mile. One of them, an 84-year-old retired dressmaker, reportedly said she lost most of her life savings in a RuAnn account.
Another anonymous Howard Beach investor reportedly said he lost $9,000 and has relatives who lost money through RuAnn accounts – one valued at more than $2 million.
The investor reportedly said that after Madoff’s arrest, both DiPascali and Bongiorno told his family that they had nothing to do with any wrongdoing. DiPascali reportedly told the anonymous investor that “his own mother lost money invested with Madoff.”
Neither DiPascali nor Bongiorno have been charged in the case, but federal officials continue to investigate, both to recover as much money as possible and to determine if there was wrongdoing by others.
The Bongiornos reportedly own a home in Manhasset, Long Island, valued at more than $2.6 million, and another in Boca Raton, Florida, assessed at $1.25 million.
The couple’s cars include a 2007 Mercedes Benz E550 and a 2002 Mercedes Benz S55 AMG, according to motor vehicle registration records. The cars’ base price was approximately $160,000 between them, when new.
The former employee reportedly said Annette Bongiorno telephoned after the collapse of Madoff’s firm, crying, to ask if the employee held Bongiorno responsible for the fraud.
When Casalotti was contacted by The Courier Sun, she declined to elaborate on her situation, other than to acknowledge that she had been deluged with calls since her name appeared in print. “I’m sorry I did it,” she said.