Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Madoff Bookkeeper Pleads Guilty

MANHATTAN (CN) - A longtime bookkeeper for Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Monday to six charges of conspiracy and falsifying books and records and promised to cooperate with the government. Eric Lipkin, 37, had worked for Madoff since he was a teen-ager and ended up in his investment advisor division, though he had no licenses or registrations for it.

Lipkin pleaded guilty to conspiracy, falsifying books and records of a broker-dealer, falsifying books and records of an investment advisor, bank fraud, and making false statements to facilitate a theft concerning the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

He admitted her created fraudulent account statements, prepared letters and statements describing bogus holdings, created fake documents he attributed to third parties, including the Depository Trust Company, and doing so to mislead investors, auditors and regulators.

According to the federal indictment, Lipkin helped other Madoff employees "with carrying out Madoff's entirely fictitious 'strike-split conversion' strategy that BMIS [Bernard Madoff Investment Securities] claimed to be pursuing on behalf of its clients. ... Lipkin also aided and abetted other books and records violations by creating, at Madoff's direction, numbers fake Depository Trust Clearing Corporation ('DTCC') reports that he knew would be used to mislead auditors and regulators and by processing payroll records for 'no-show' employees."

Madoff paid Lipkin bonuses for his work, and also gave him $720,000 to buy a house, which he never paid back, prosecutors said.

Lipkin faces up to 70 years in prison, fines and restitution will have to redo his taxes, according to his plea agreement.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...