Longtime Madoff Employee Will Plead Guilty
One of Bernard Madoff’s longest-serving employees is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges in the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, U.S. prosecutors said, the latest among a dozen former employees to face charges.
Irwin Lipkin, a former controller of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, will appear in Manhattan federal court on Th ursday, prosecutors said in a letter to the judge.
He will plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and falsifying documents, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in the letter, which was dated Tuesday, September 11.
The letter said Lipkin, 74, created “false financial records that were provided to BLMIS investors,” false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and false statements required under a federal law that sets standards for pension plans.
Lipkin’s lawyer, David Richman, was not immediately available to comment. The charges carry a maximum possible prison term of 10 years.
Lipkin’s son, Eric Lipkin, another former Madoff employee , p leaded guilty in 2011 to criminal charges of bank fraud and charges that he reported people were Madoff employees so they could receive retirement benefits.
Irwin Lipkin joined Madoff’s firm in 1964, according to court records. Court papers showed that he continued to draw a salary from the firm even after he stopped working there in 1999.
Madoff, 74, was charged in December 2008 with a decades-long fraud that the government originally estimated at as much as $64.5 billion. He pleaded guilty in March 2009 and is serving a 150-year prison sentence.
The trustee leading the search for money to return to Madoff’s victims says Madoff defrauded customers of about $20 billion. The trustee, Irving Picard, so far has won $9.1 billion in recoveries and settlement agreements.
On June 29, Madoff’s brother Peter pleaded guilty to criminal charges. He had been chief compliance officer at his brother’s firm. He has agreed to accept a 10-year prison term.
Of the dozen people charged in the case, apart from Bernard Madoff, five have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
