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Ex-aide pleads guilty, blames Madoff for fraud
Source: Agencies |
December 21, 2011, Wednesday
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THE former controller for imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff blamed him on Monday for directing her to deceive investors, regulators and the Internal Revenue Service as she pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges.
"I did not know that Madoff and others were stealing investors' money," Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz said as she entered the plea in US District Court in Manhattan, becoming the sixth person to plead guilty and admit a role in a fraud that Madoff claimed he carried out alone. "For that, I am terribly sorry."
Besides conspiracy, the 53-year-old, pleaded guilty to falsifying books and records and making false filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
The charges carry a potential of up to 50 years in prison for a woman who admitted a major role in the multi-decade fraud that cheated thousands of investors out of the roughly US$20 billion they invested with a man of once-sterling reputation on Wall Street.
Cotellessa-Pitz said she started working at Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1978 while she was studying economics in college. She was named controller in late 1998. She said Madoff and others within months were directing her to put false entries in the company's books to make it appear profitable trades were being made and that losses were not incurred.
The massive Ponzi scheme was revealed in December 2008, when Madoff confessed to his sons that his business was a sham. He pleaded guilty a few months later to fraud charges and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. He insisted he acted alone. Now 73, Madoff is jailed at a federal prison in North Carolina.
"I did not know that Madoff and others were stealing investors' money," Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz said as she entered the plea in US District Court in Manhattan, becoming the sixth person to plead guilty and admit a role in a fraud that Madoff claimed he carried out alone. "For that, I am terribly sorry."
Besides conspiracy, the 53-year-old, pleaded guilty to falsifying books and records and making false filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
The charges carry a potential of up to 50 years in prison for a woman who admitted a major role in the multi-decade fraud that cheated thousands of investors out of the roughly US$20 billion they invested with a man of once-sterling reputation on Wall Street.
Cotellessa-Pitz said she started working at Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1978 while she was studying economics in college. She was named controller in late 1998. She said Madoff and others within months were directing her to put false entries in the company's books to make it appear profitable trades were being made and that losses were not incurred.
The massive Ponzi scheme was revealed in December 2008, when Madoff confessed to his sons that his business was a sham. He pleaded guilty a few months later to fraud charges and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. He insisted he acted alone. Now 73, Madoff is jailed at a federal prison in North Carolina.
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