Final
Madoff defendant sentenced to six months in prison
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[August 06, 2015]
By Joseph Ax
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Irwin Lipkin, one of
Bernard Madoff's longest-serving employees, was sentenced to six months
in prison on Wednesday for falsifying records that helped the imprisoned
fraudster carry out his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
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The sentencing before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in
Manhattan marked the end of the criminal prosecutions stemming from
the fraud, more than six years after Madoff's arrest sent shockwaves
through Wall Street.
Lipkin, 77, was the Madoff firm's controller from 1964 to 1998. He
was the last of 15 defendants who either pleaded guilty or were
convicted at trial to be sentenced.
Madoff, also 77, is serving a 150-year prison term after pleading
guilty in 2009 to masterminding the scheme, estimated to have cost
investors $17 billion in principal.
Lipkin pleaded guilty in 2012 but, like other defendants, said he
was unaware Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme.
"Smarter people than myself were taken in by him," Lipkin, who was
confined to a wheelchair, told Swain on Wednesday.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Aug/06/images/ads/current/encompass-grain-farmers-Daily-after-book.png) But Assistant U.S. Attorney David Abramowicz said Lipkin, and
others, helped Madoff perpetuate his scheme through their crimes,
even if they didn't know the entire truth.
"The lesson we've seen in this parade of guilty defendants is:
Bernard Madoff didn't do this alone," he told Swain. "He needed
help, and he found it in people like Irwin Lipkin."
Swain said she would have imposed a far longer sentence if not for
Lipkin's age and poor health.
In addition to six months in prison, Swain sentenced Lipkin to 1-1/2
years of home confinement. She also said the Federal Bureau of
Prisons could convert his prison term to home confinement if
necessary for his health.
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Lipkin was accused of falsifying records to fool government
regulators and help Madoff mislead tax auditors about his income.
He also arranged for fake trades in his investment accounts for tax
reasons and kept himself and his wife on the firm's payroll even
when they were not employed there, prosecutors said.
Unlike several other defendants who pleaded guilty, Lipkin did not
cooperate with prosecutors.
Five Madoff employees - back-office director Daniel Bonventre,
portfolio managers Annette Bongiorno and JoAnn Crupi and computer
programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez - were found guilty by a
jury last year on all counts.
They were sentenced to between 2-1/2 and 10 years in prison and are
appealing their convictions.
The case is U.S. v. O'Hara et al, U.S. District Court, Southern
District of New York, No. 10-cr-00228.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
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