(Bloomberg News) Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz, Bernard Madoff's ex-controller, said she didn't know her former boss was running a massive Ponzi scheme while she helped falsify the firm's accounting for almost a decade.
Cotellessa-Pitz, 53, pleaded guilty to four criminal counts at a hearing in Manhattan federal court yesterday, admitting she created phony stock records, made false entries in the firm's general ledgers and filed untrue reports with regulators.
"Although I now know the crimes I committed helped to cover up and perpetuate Bernard Madoff's fraud, at the time I did not know that Madoff and others were stealing investors' money," she told U.S District Judge Laura Taylor Swain at the plea hearing.
Cotellessa-Pitz pleaded guilty to conspiracy, falsifying books and records of a broker-dealer, falsifying books and records of an investment advisor and making false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She faces as long as 50 years in prison when she's sentenced, Swain told her yesterday.
She also faces forfeiture of $97.3 billion, Swain said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Baroni told Swain that Cotellessa-Pitz has been working with the government to unravel the Madoff fraud for "quite a long time now."
Free On Bond
Cotellessa-Pitz is to remain free on $2.5 million bond, secured by $800,000 in cash or property and guaranteed by eight co-signers. She has until Jan. 3 to meet the requirements. Her sentencing is set for June 22.
Madoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges, is serving 150 years in prison for the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. Investors lost about $20 billion in principal, the trustee liquidating Madoff's business in bankruptcy court has said.
Irving Picard, the trustee, sued Cotellessa-Pitz and her husband, Thomas Pitz, in 2010, seeking the return of money he claimed they received from the fraud. The SEC filed a civil complaint against her today.