Cotellessa-Pitz, who lives in Ozone Park, New York, was hired in 1978 to work part-time for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, she said. She said she was promoted to controller and began falsifying the firm's books, under the direction of Daniel Bonventre, the firm's director of operations, from about 1999 until the Madoff fraud became public in December 2008.
Bonventre was charged in the case and pleaded not guilty.
Cotellessa-Pitz told Swain that, along with other Madoff employees, she created fake documents under-reporting firm profits to help Madoff with a 2004 state tax audit and a 2007 federal audit, she said.
The criminal case is U.S. v. O'Hara, 10-CR-228, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The bankruptcy case is Picard v. Cotellessa-Pitz, 10-4213, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).