Bernie Madoff's accountant Paul Konigsberg pleads guilty in Ponzi scheme

Konigsberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy and two counts of falsifying books and records

Fraudster Bernie Madoff (AFP)

A senior partner at a New York accounting firm has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a co-operation deal with the government, admitting he played a part in Bernie Madoff’s “evil Ponzi scheme”.

Paul Konigsberg, 78, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan to conspiracy and two counts of falsifying books and records.

Konigsberg agreed to forfeit $4.4 million (£2.6 million) in cash and property. He will be sentenced later this year.

Prosecutors said he was the only person outside Madoff’s family to have owned a stake in Madoff’s firm before it was exposed in 2008 as a huge, decades-old fraud.

He held shares in Madoff Securities International Limited, Madoff’s London-based affiliate.

Madoff, who is now serving a 150-year prison sentence, admitted in 2009 that his claims to have managed up to $68 billion for investors were false because he had squandered or redistributed all but a few hundred million dollars of roughly $20 billion entrusted to him.