An employee who has been singled out as a member of Bernard L. Madoff’s “inner circle” pleaded guilty on Monday to charges that he doctored documents to fool auditors, faked payroll records and obtained a loan by inflating the value of his personal accounts.
Eric S. Lipkin, a second-generation employee who worked at Mr. Madoff’s secretive investment advisory business for 16 years, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bank fraud and falsifying financial records in a cooperation deal with prosecutors. He admitted his role in the Madoff fraud, telling the judge that he “worked to deceive auditors.”
“I’m very sorry for my conduct,” he said.
Mr. Lipkin became the third Madoff employee to plead guilty in the continuing investigation into the fraud that cost thousands of people billions of dollars. In 2009, prosecutors obtained confessions from the Madoff firm’s independent auditor and from Frank DiPascali Jr., Mr. Madoff’s longtime deputy and chief lieutenant.
His guilty plea clearly shifts the legal landscape for five other former Madoff employees facing criminal charges in the case. Those defendants — who include Daniel Bonventre, the former chief of operations at the Madoff firm, two computer programmers and two office administrators — are facing charges that were based in part on grand jury testimony by Mr. DiPascali, who is cooperating with the government investigation while awaiting sentencing.