Ex-Madoff aide makes bail, under house arrest

**smedley butler** · 01-07-2011

She may have been safer in prison.

So far Mark Madoff "hanged himself" and a close associate billionaire friend of Bernie Madoff drowned in his pool and Sonja Kohn has disappeared.

Print Story: Ex-Madoff aide makes bail, under house arrest - Yahoo! News
Ex-Madoff aide makes bail, under house arrest

Fri Jan 7, 1:02 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Annette Bongiorno, one of convicted swindler Bernard Madoff's longest serving employees charged in the massive fraud, made bail on Friday and was ordered into house arrest.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Bongiorno, 62, confined to her multimillion-dollar house in Manhasset on New York's Long Island as the case proceeds to trial.

The judge accepted that Bongiorno could meet the requirements of bail reduced to $3 million from $5 million "under strict home incarceration" that "provides the necessary assurance that she will appear in court for the case."

Bongiorno worked at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC for 40 years, managed accounts and supervised some employees, according to federal prosecutors who arrested her and charged her with conspiracy and securities fraud on November 18.

She surrendered to authorities on December 21 after being under house arrest at another home in Boca Raton, Florida, after failing make bail.
In court on Friday, the diminutive Bongiorno rose briefly to say "Yes I do, Your Honor" when the judge asked if she understood the new bail conditions.

Madoff, 72, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in March 2009 to orchestrating what is considered the biggest investment fraud in history.

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**smedley butler** · 01-07-2011

She's still missing as of December.

Where in the World Is (Alleged Madoff Co-conspirator) Sonja Kohn? ? The Sisterhood ? Forward.com

December 16, 2010, 5:09pm Where in the World Is (Alleged Madoff Co-conspirator) Sonja Kohn?

Sonja Kohn has been in hiding for about two years.

In photos, accused Bernard Madoff co-conspirator Sonja Kohn looks something between the prototypical bubbe and the Queen of England, though she may be richer than the queen.

Ms. Kohn, the Austrian-born, fervently Orthodox founder of Bank Medici, reportedly steered more than $9 billion from investors into Madoff’s hands for at least $62 million in kickbacks. She and her bank were named last week by Irving Picard, the Madoff estate’s trustee, in a civil racketeering lawsuit as part of his effort to recover $19.6 billion for Madoff’s victims.
The suit was filed a day before Madoff’s older son, Mark Madoff, committed suicide.

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Since shortly after Madoff was arrested, two years ago, she has been in hiding from some of her many enemies, including Russian oligarchs whose money she sent Madoff’s way.

Some say that she’s likely hiding out in Bnei Brak, Israel, where she might find safe haven — though surely not the luxuries to which she is accustomed — among the Haredi Jews who populate the town, and remain beyond the reach of legal authorities, and those who may want to bring her to a rougher kind of justice.