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SEC charges longtime Madoff employee with fraud

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Eric Lipkin, a longtime employee at Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BMIS), with helping Bernard L Madoff and his firm deceive and defraud investors and regulators about the massive Ponzi scheme.

“Eric Lipkin helped create the detailed and entirely phoney trading and business records that contributed to the success of Madoff’s fraud,” says George S Canellos, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “The SEC is committed to holding accountable those who helped to perpetrate and conceal Madoff’s scheme.”

The SEC’s complaint, filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that for more than a decade, Lipkin helped Madoff defraud investors and mislead auditors and regulators about Madoff’s fraudulent, multi-billion dollar advisory operations. According to the complaint, Lipkin processed payroll records for “no-show” employees, falsified records of investors’ account holdings, and played a role in executing the entirely fictitious investment strategy that Madoff and BMIS claimed to be pursuing on behalf of its clients. In fact, Madoff used investors’ funds to enrich himself, his family, and his associates, and to pay off other investors. Lipkin also helped Madoff deceive regulators by preparing fake Depository Trust Clearing Corporation (DTCC) reports showing the sham investments for clients. Lipkin received annual bonuses from the firm, including for his work to mislead auditors and examiners, and he received USD720,000 from Madoff to purchase a house, an amount he never paid back.

Without admitting or denying the allegations of the SEC’s complaint, Lipkin has consented to a proposed partial judgment, which, if entered by the court, will impose a permanent injunction against Lipkin and require him to disgorge ill-gotten gains and pay a fine in an amount to be determined by the court at a later time.

The SEC’s complaint against Lipkin alleges that he violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933; violated and aided and abetted violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder; aided and abetted violations of Sections 204, 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 204-2 thereunder, and Sections 15(c) and 17(a) of the Exchange Act and Rules 10b-3 and 17a-3 thereunder.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Kristine M. Zaleskas and Aaron P. Arnzen of the New York Regional Office. The Commission acknowledges the assistance of the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with which the Commission has coordinated its investigation. The SEC’s investigation is continuing.

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