Before leaving Manhattan federal court Friday, the panel wrote a note asking U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain whether three charges in the 31-count criminal indictment referred only to Madoff's phony investment advisory division while three others related solely to his legitimate broker-dealer business.
Evidence during the trial showed that the divisions were intertwined, with Madoff siphoning money from unsuspecting investment clients to prop up his financially struggling broker-dealer wing.
Four of the ex-employees charged in the conspiracy worked chiefly or exclusively in the investment advisory division. The fifth worked largely on the broker-dealer side, though he also had some duties in the other business arm.
All are accused of knowingly participating in and profiting from the decades-long scam that stole an estimated $20 billion from thousands of average investors, celebrities, charities, financial funds and others.
Prosecutors wrote a proposed five-paragraph jury response that Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Jackson said was drawn largely verbatim from legal instructions Swain gave the jury before deliberations began on Monday.
Defense lawyers, however, recommended that the judge tell the jurors that guidance on their questions could be found in written copies of her legal instructions — which were given to jurors at the start of the verdict phase.
Swain told both sides to put any additional legal arguments on the issue in writing, with final submissions due by noon Sunday.
The debate capped a week in which deliberations stalled for three days due to one juror's illness. The decision-making phase resumed Friday after defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed to proceed with 11 jurors, one short of! the usual number. Taylor Swain approved the agreement.
The five-month trial is one of the longest white-collar crime cases in Manhattan federal court history. It's also the first Madoff-related criminal proceeding to be weighed by a jury. The disgraced financier pleaded guilty after the scam collapsed in December 2008. He's now serving a 150-year prison term.
The former co-workers face decades behind bars if they're convicted on conspiracy, securities fraud, tax evasion and other charges.
They include Daniel Bonventre, Madoff's former operations manager; Annette Bongiorno, who oversaw accounts of her boss' biggest investment clients; JoAnn Crupi, who had day-to-day responsibility for the investment division bank account; and former Madoff computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez.
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