Three former employees of Bernie Madoff  lost their bids to have criminal charges against them dismissed.  U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan last week denied a request by Daniel Bonventre, Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi to throw out the charges based on their claim that the government is improperly restricting their access to money to pay their lawyers.  Swain rejected the argument that the prosecution is interfering with their right to legal counsel.  Prosecutors are asking the court to order the forfeiture of $154.5 billion, an amount “many orders of magnitude” higher than the defendants’ assets, the judge said today in a written opinion. The charges include securities fraud and conspiracy.

The constitution “does not prevent the government from reclaiming its property from a defendant even though the defendant had planned to fund his legal defense with it,” Judge Swain wrote.

Andrew Frisch, who represents Bonventre, said his client intends to appeal her decision,  Bonventre told Swain in court papers that he rejected 4 government attempts to win his cooperation in the Madoff investigation.   [Crains New York, 3/30]