Legal News

L?Affaire Madoff: DiPascali Charges Hint at Broader Participation

By Ashby Jones

It’d be a shame, frankly, if you got word last month that Bernie Madoff was going to be spending the next 15 decades down in Butner, N.C., and decided to stop paying attention to the whole Madoff situation. If that description applies to you, LBer, know that we still love you and do understand you’re a bit out of it because you just got back from an August vacation in which you rather improbably rediscovered your love of the Tequila Sunrise, but you gotta sit up and pay attention now: Things could get very interesting once again.

The new name you’ve gotta know: Frank DiPascali. He’s the former CFO of the Madoff investment-advisory business. We blogged about him last Friday, here, when word broke that he’d be charged by the U.S. in connection with the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Today, however, come the charges themselves. Click here for the government’s filing; here for the WSJ story; here for the Bloomberg story. The charges are ten-fold. Among the crimes allegedly committed by DiPascali: mail fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, investment-advisory fraud and perjury. But the big one: Conspiracy.

Of course, we have no idea who else the government thinks may have conspired with DiPascali, aside from Bernie himself, but the very notion is pretty intriguing given that DiPascali has decided to plead guilty — today, as a matter of fact. Also new news: according to the government (here), DiPascali has a plea agreement with the government. Bernie, as you’ll recall, didn’t.

In a letter to the court dated Monday, prosecutors recommended that DiPascali be released on a $2.5 million bond secured by his sister’s home.

Of course, we’ll bring you news from the hearing as soon as we get it. With any luck, we might also get a picture of DiPascali, whose likeness has so far proven rather elusive. Lawyers for DiPascali declined to comment on Tuesday.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 11, 2009 (boomark / email).