Legal News

Breaking News: Madoff Securities? Accountant Hit With Criminal Charges

By Ashby Jones

This just in: David Friehling, the accountant for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, was charged criminally on Wednesday morning on six charges: one count of securities fraud, one count of aiding and abetting investment-adviser fraud, and four counts of filing false audit reports with the SEC. According to a press release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, Friehling (pronounced “free-ling”) surrendered Wednesday morning. Click here for the government’s press release; here for the criminal complaint.

Freihling’s lawyer, Andrew Lankler, declined to comment.

Friehling, 49 years old, faces up to 105 years in prison if convicted of all of the charges. He’s expected to be presented before a federal magistrate judge later today.

Prosecutors alleged that Friehling, from the early 1990s to December 2008, created false and fraudulent certified financial statements for Madoff's firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

Although Friehling is not charged with knowledge of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, he is charged with deceiving investors by falsely certifying that he audited the financial statements of Madoff's business, said acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin in a statement. Madoff’s firm paid Mr. Friehling between $12,000 and $14,500 a month for his services between 2004 and 2007, prosecutors said.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).