The Madoff saga will never, ever, end. The newest wrinkle in the story comes from two of Bernie's assistants, former operations chief Daniel Bonventre and former aide Annette Bongiorno, who are trying to wiggle out of prison as the Feds continue to build a case against them and the remaining Madoffs.
Bonventre is asking to have his criminal charges dismissed as he claims prosecutors are "interfering with his constitutional right to counsel by seizing assets" and are only doing that in an effort to flip him against "friends who invested extraordinary sums with [Madoff], as well as family members ... including his wife, brother, niece, nephew and two sons"—we suspect he meant son singular.
Bongiorno, on the other hand, is asking to be released from prison since the assets that a judge felt might make her a flight risk have also been seized. Everything from her bank accounts to her husbands E-Trade account have been seized, she complains through a lawyer. She was returned to New York from Florida yesterday.
On the plus side, if charges are eventually brought against Ruth Madoff and co., at least she'll have a driver when she needs to go to court.
