[JURIST] A former accountant for Bernard Madoff [JURIST news archive] pleaded guilty [press release] Tuesday to charges connected to Madoff’s multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme. Paul Konigsberg, a 78-year-old former senior tax partner at Konigsberg Wolf & Co and the last defendant in the Madoff prosecutions, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and two counts of falsifying records of a broker-dealer. He did not work directly for Madoff’s firm and maintained for some time that he had no idea that Madoff’s trades were fake. However, in his guilty plea, he admitted to filing false tax returns for some of Madoff’s highest paid investors. He agreed to forfeit $4.4 million and could face up to 30 years in prison, but a deal with the FBI is being arranged that could reduce his sentence [Reuters report].

Legal action has continued from the fallout of the 2008 Madoff Ponzi scheme. In March a federal jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York returned a guilty verdict [JURIST report] for five former associates of Madoff on charges they aided and profited from the Ponzi scheme. In January a federal judge approved a settlement [JURIST report] between the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s failure to report internal suspicions regarding Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Last September a judge for the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York ruled [JURIST report] that victims can only recover the principal amount invested without accounting for inflation over the past five years and excluding interest. Last April a judge for the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected a suit [JURIST report] by victims against the US Securities and Exchange Commission.