Madoff's auditor is expected to enter guilty plea

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By ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) | Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's longtime auditor is expected to plead guilty next week in a cooperation deal, federal prosecutors told a judge Friday.

Prosecutors said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that accountant David Friehling was expected to plead guilty at a conference on Tuesday.

In the letter, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa A. Baroni, prosecutors said they wanted to notify the court so that it could provide notice to victims of Madoff's multibillion-dollar fraud that the plea hearing will take place.

They said Mr. Friehling will enter the plea to revised charges that accuse him of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and obstructing or impeding the administration of Internal Revenue Service laws.

The charges carry a potential of up to 108 years in prison, though substantial cooperation with prosecutors can result in leniency.

Mr. Friehling's lawyer, Andrew McCutcheon Lankler, said: "We don't have a comment. We've never commented on this case, and we're not about to start now."

Mr. Friehling, 49, was Madoff's auditor from 1991 to 2008, roughly the amount of time that Madoff admitted he carried out his fraud when he pleaded guilty to fraud charges in March. Madoff, 71, is serving a 150-year sentence at a prison in North Carolina.

Mr. Friehling remains free on bail. He would be the third person to plead guilty in the case.

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Manhattan continued to deny bail for Frank DiPascali, Madoff's former finance chief who is cooperating after pleading guilty in August to helping Madoff carry out his fraud.