Heads Up | Madoff’s auditor pleads guilty

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Madoff auditor pleads guilty

Bernard L. Madoff’s longtime accountant pleaded guilty on Tuesday to deliberately producing the rubber-stamp audits that helped Madoff conceal his enormous Ponzi scheme from regulators for nearly 20 years. The accountant, David G. Friehling, who was Madoff’s “independent auditor” from 1991 until the fraud collapsed in December 2008, pleaded guilty to nine criminal charges carrying a potential prison term of 114 years. Though an investor in the scheme, Friehling produced the supposedly professional and independent audits that sustained the Madoff fraud year in and year out. But Friehling insisted that “at no time was I ever aware Bernard Madoff was engaged in a Ponzi scheme.”

Orders bounce back

Factory orders rebounded in September, rising 0.9 percent on strength in autos, heavy machinery and military aircraft. The fifth increase in six months bolstered hopes that a revival in manufacturing will help support an overall economic recovery. The Commerce Department said Tuesday demand increased for both durable goods and non-durable goods such as chemicals and energy products.

Brit bank breakup

The British government moved Tuesday to break up the country’s two biggest retail banks, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and Lloyds Group PLC, imposing a major shakeup on the financial sector as it exacts payback for last year’s massive state bailout. The change could result in the creation of as many as three new commercial banks.

| The New York Times | The Associated Press

Posted on Tue, Nov. 03, 2009 10:15 PM

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