MoJo Troll Patrol encourages readers to sign in with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Disqus, or OpenID to comment. Please read our comment policy before posting.
In a workplace where pricey suits were the norm, Bernie's Marlboro-smoking right-hand man dressed in jeans and sneakers, but he was so gruff when investors called him with questions that many simply stopped calling. Frank DiPascali helped invent and perpetuate Madoff's phony trading scheme; his take included a mansion in Bridgewater, New Jersey, a pair of Benzes in the driveway, and a monster fishing boat whose captain had his very own Madoff AmEx. The only true insider indicted as of press time—others included rubber-stamping accountant David Friehling and two IT guys charged with providing tech support for the scam—DiPascali faces up to 125 years upriver. Sentencing is set for May. In the meantime, from jail, he's helping the FBI make sense of company records and build cases against as yet unnamed coconspirators.
Mother Jones is unique among news outlets covering the 2012 election. We're a nonprofit dedicated to fearless investigative reporting, so we go beyond the daily play-by-play to illuminate the larger issues—like the influx of shadowy corporate money in politics. Will you give a few dollars to the Mother Jones Investigative Fund to support critical reporting? Even $5 will make a real difference.
