Bigger Than Enron - Madoff Pyramid Scheme

[David Guyatt]

More Madoff. If only the cdrooked banks were being targeted too.

Bernard Madoff's former accountant arrested over $65bn Ponzi schemePaul Konigsberg is the 15th person to be charged over Bernard Madoff's fraud revealed nearly five years ago
Reuters
The Guardian, Thursday 26 September 2013 20.30 BST
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Bernard Madoff received the maximum 150-year prison sentence. Photograph: Timothy A. Clary/AFP
A former accountant for Bernard Madoff was arrested on Thursday, nearly five years after the fraudster's huge Ponzi scheme was uncovered, an FBI spokesman said.
Paul Konigsberg, an accountant and former senior tax partner at Konigsberg Wolf & Co in New York, is the 15th person to be charged over the fraud.
Madoff, 75, was arrested on 12 December 2008 and is serving a 150-year sentence. The trustee liquidating Madoff's New York investment firm has said customers lost about $17.3bn (£10.7bn).
Konigsberg's arrest comes less than two weeks before the expected trial of five former Madoff employees accused of aiding the fraud.
According to court papers, Konigsberg was a close associate of Madoff's and helped him open a London-based operation, Madoff Securities International Ltd, in which he owned non-voting shares.
It was not immediately clear what charges Konigsberg faces.
In March 2009, prosecutors in the US accused Madoff of using the London operation to launder money.
They said he would wire money from his New York investment advisory business to London, and then from London back to New York to support his trading business and to personally benefit himself, family and associates.
Reed Brodsky, a lawyer for Konigsberg, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Brodsky told the New York Times, which earlier reported the arrest, that his 77-year-old client was an "innocent victim" of Madoff's fraud and looked forward to clearing his name at trial.
A spokeswoman for US attorney Preet Bharara in New York declined to comment.
Thursday's arrest comes less than three months before a five-year statute of limitations runs out for prosecutors to bring charges tied to the fraud.
Nine people have pleaded guilty. They include Madoff, his brother Peter Madoff, former top lieutenant Frank DiPascali who has been closely cooperating with the investigation, and another former accountant, David Friehling.
The five former employees, who pleaded not guilty and face a trial in the federal court in New York on 7 October, are Annette Bongiorno, Daniel Bonventre, Joann Crupi, Jerome O'Hara and George Perez.