Frank DiPascali dies at 58; Bernie Madoff aide turned government witness

Bernard Madoff’s former right-hand man, who once admitted he was loyal to his boss “to a terrible, terrible fault,” has died less than a month before he was to face sentencing for his role in the multibillion-dollar fraud.

Frank DiPascali, 58, died Thursday of lung cancer after spending his final years cooperating with investigators.

DiPascali had been due to appear on June 5 in federal court in New York City, where he was expected to get credit for pleading guilty and agreeing to become a key government witness against his former coworkers.

“He was grateful to have been able to make some amends by helping the government these past few years,” his attorney, Marc Mukasey, said in a statement.

In 2009 as he entered his guilty plea, DiPascali told a judge that account statements showing the firm was making trades for clients were “all fake,” something “I knew, Bernie Madoff knew and other people knew.”

About Madoff, he added: “I was loyal to him. I ended up being loyal to a terrible, terrible fault.”

Testifying four years later at the trial of five former Madoff employees, DiPascali described to a jury how he found Madoff in tears as the Ponzi scheme was unraveling in late 2008.

“I’m at the end of my rope. I have no more money,” DiPascali quoted Madoff as saying.

When he asked his boss what he meant, he said he snapped, “I don’t have any more .. money! Don’t you get it?”

The five defendants were convicted of charges that they repeatedly lied to hide a fraud that enriched them and cheated investors — a renunciation of Madoff’s claim when he pleaded guilty to fraud charges in March 2009 that he acted alone.

Madoff, 77, is serving a 150-year sentence at a federal prison in North Carolina.