NEW YORK — Bernard Madoff’s longtime secretary said Wednesday that she believes the disgraced financier is not cooperating with authorities in order to protect others, and that he was a flirtatious boss who frequented massage parlors.
Eleanor Squillari, Madoff’s secretary of more than 20 years, told NBC’s "Today” that she thinks her former boss carefully orchestrated his arrest and that he’s protecting others who might have been involved in his multibillion-dollar scheme by not cooperating with investigators. She declined to speculate as to whom he might be protecting.
Squillari was asked what she would say to Madoff.
"After I stop crying? I would really want to know why he is not cooperating,” she said.
Squillari appeared on "Today” and on ABC’s "Good Morning America” to promote an account of her time working for Madoff that she co-wrote for Vanity Fair. The 59-year-old Squillari spent two months helping the FBI gather evidence against her former employer.
In the article, Squillari said her married former boss was flirtatious and made sexually suggestive remarks. She said she once saw him perusing the escort ads in the back of a magazine and said he frequented massage parlors.
"Once, I looked in his address book and found, under M, about a dozen phone numbers for his masseuses,” she wrote. "If you ever lose your address book and somebody finds it, they’re going to think you’re a pervert, I said.”
Squillari said Madoff often made sexually suggestive remarks.
"‘Oh, you know you’re crazy about me,’ he would say to me. Sometimes when he came out of his bathroom, which was diagonal to my desk, he would still be zipping up his pants. If he saw me shaking my head disapprovingly, he would say ‘Oh, you know it excites you,’” she wrote.
But Squillari told ABC she had a nice relationship with Madoff, despite his ways toward women.
"So, what one person might perceive as inappropriate, I didn’t,” she said. "So, if he made suggestive remarks, I knew it was only meant to be funny.”
Madoff, 70, pleaded guilty in March to charges that his secretive investment advisory operation was a multibillion-dollar fraud. The former Nasdaq chairman faces up to 150 years in prison.
Madoff’s attorney, Ira Sorkin, said Wednesday he has no comment on any of the secretary’s allegations.
Squillari said the Madoff who was arrested was not the same man she knew.
She said she was shocked and then angry after his arrest.
And she decided to help the FBI.
by the associated press
Eleanor Squillari, Madoff’s secretary of more than 20 years, told NBC’s "Today” that she thinks her former boss carefully orchestrated his arrest and that he’s protecting others who might have been involved in his multibillion-dollar scheme by not cooperating with investigators. She declined to speculate as to whom he might be protecting.
Squillari was asked what she would say to Madoff.
"After I stop crying? I would really want to know why he is not cooperating,” she said.
Squillari appeared on "Today” and on ABC’s "Good Morning America” to promote an account of her time working for Madoff that she co-wrote for Vanity Fair. The 59-year-old Squillari spent two months helping the FBI gather evidence against her former employer.
In the article, Squillari said her married former boss was flirtatious and made sexually suggestive remarks. She said she once saw him perusing the escort ads in the back of a magazine and said he frequented massage parlors.
"Once, I looked in his address book and found, under M, about a dozen phone numbers for his masseuses,” she wrote. "If you ever lose your address book and somebody finds it, they’re going to think you’re a pervert, I said.”
Squillari said Madoff often made sexually suggestive remarks.
"‘Oh, you know you’re crazy about me,’ he would say to me. Sometimes when he came out of his bathroom, which was diagonal to my desk, he would still be zipping up his pants. If he saw me shaking my head disapprovingly, he would say ‘Oh, you know it excites you,’” she wrote.
But Squillari told ABC she had a nice relationship with Madoff, despite his ways toward women.
"So, what one person might perceive as inappropriate, I didn’t,” she said. "So, if he made suggestive remarks, I knew it was only meant to be funny.”
Madoff, 70, pleaded guilty in March to charges that his secretive investment advisory operation was a multibillion-dollar fraud. The former Nasdaq chairman faces up to 150 years in prison.
Madoff’s attorney, Ira Sorkin, said Wednesday he has no comment on any of the secretary’s allegations.
Squillari said the Madoff who was arrested was not the same man she knew.
She said she was shocked and then angry after his arrest.
And she decided to help the FBI.
by the associated press
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