In plea, ex-Madoff man admits falsifying records
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former employee at convicted financier Bernard Madoff's firm admitted to adding fake employees to the payroll, part of a plea deal on Monday to bank fraud and other charges.
The former payroll MAN (MAN.XE)ger, Eric Lipkin, told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in New York that in 22 years of employment in the investment advisory arm of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, he conspired with others to falsify records and deceive authorities.
Madoff, 73, and eight others have been criminally charged with running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that collapsed in December 2008, shaking up regulators who missed years of warning signs of the fraud.
Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in March 2009 for what is considered the biggest investment fraud in history. A Ponzi scheme is one in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients.
Lipkin told the judge that from at least 1986, "I created false payroll records." As one example, he said that in 2008 he was instructed by the firm's operations manager, Daniel Bonventre, to put Bonventre's son on the payroll even though he did not work at the firm.
Bonventre has also been charged and is free on bail pending trial.
Under Lipkin's plea agreement, he will cooperating with the office of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney and the FBI in its investigation of the Madoff fraud.
Lipkin, 37, also said in Manhattan federal court that he created false reports to be sent to the Depository Trust Co (now called the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp) clearing house for buyers and sellers of securities.
"I knew these documents were false because they were created by me," said Lipkin, who was released on bail of $2.5 million after the plea proceeding.
Lipkin said the false reports were given to auditors to mislead them.
Lipkin pled guilty to charges of conspiracy and falsifying books and records to commit bank fraud. The most serious charge of bank fraud carries a maximum possible 30-year prison sentence.
The case is USA v O'Hara et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 10-228.
(Reporting by Grant McCool, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)