Paul Konigsberg is the former accountant and a former senior tax partner at Konigsberg Wolf & Co in New York City, leaves the Manhattan federal courthouse after making bail, with his lawyer Reed Brodsky, in New York, September 26, 2013. ^{[0] [2] [3] [5] [8]}

Paul Konigsberg, 79, a lawyer and accounting firm executive, pleaded guilty in June 2014 to charges of conspiracy and falsifying books and records ^[0]for Bernard Madoff. ^[6]

Mr. Konigsberg received a late-night call from his lawyer telling him that he had been indicted.

He drove back to New York to surrender.

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“It is an extremely sad day in my life,” he said in remarks that left his lawyer, Reed Brodsky, in tears.

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Konigsberg pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and falsifying books and records, admitting that he unwittingly had a role in Madoff’s multi-decade fraud by ^[8]agreeing to let the Ponzi scheme’s employees change trading records on some of his client’s financial statements.

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He was the only person outside the Madoff family to have held an ownership interest in Madoff’s private investment business.

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“In their witch hunt arising out of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, the government conveniently ignores that Bernie Madoff deceived everyone around him — from the most sophisticated investors to the S.E.C. itself,” said Mr. Brodsky, a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

“He looks forward to clearing his good name at trial.”

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U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain said what Konigsberg did was “seriously wrong” but agreed with prosecutors and Konigsberg that he did not know Madoff was defrauding thousands of investors of nearly $20 billion.

She said Konigsberg, through his cooperation, earned leniency from federal sentencing guidelines that called for at least eight years in prison.

She also rejected a request by a court-appointed monitor recovering money for Madoff ^[8]investors who had asked that Konigsberg be required to cooperate further with his office as part of his sentence.

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Assistant U.S. Attorney David Abramowicz said Konigsberg’s help included providing information that explained how Madoff and his workers dealt with his most favored investors.

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U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in New York, citing an otherwise admirable life, said Konigsberg had been punished enough by the loss of his reputation.

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“You’ve demonstrated sincere remorse,” she said.

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Prosecutors said Konigsberg was unaware of the scheme but helped by conspiring with Madoff employees to create some of the fraudulent customer statements at its heart.

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“In order to keep his scheme hidden for so long, Madoff needed the assistance of certain willing outsiders that could be trusted to handle otherwise suspicious activity,” the government said.

“Madoff directed many of his clients — including some of his most important customers, in whose accounts Madoff executed the most glaring fraudulent transactions — to use Paul J. Konigsberg, the defendant, as their accountant.”

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“Not a day goes by that I don’t regret that I trusted Mr. Madoff,” a tearful Konigsberg told Swain.

^[4]“As we’ve all come to know, this man was truly a monster.”

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Konigsberg’s plea last year included references to two unnamed co-conspirators who allegedly received sham tax-free loans ^[3]from Madoff.

Sources told Reuters the two people were Madoff’s sons, Mark and Andrew.

Mark Madoff committed suicide in December 2010 on the second ^[2]anniversary of his father’s arrest.

Andrew Madoff died in September.

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The Madoff brothers denied any knowledge of or involvement in their father’s fraud.

Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence after pleading guilty to running the Ponzi scheme, estimated to have cost investors $17 billion in principal.

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Mr. Konigsberg is the second outside accountant charged in the Madoff case.

David G. Friehling, the longtime auditor for Mr. Madoff’s firm, who worked out of a Rockland County strip shopping mall, has pleaded guilty but has yet to be sentenced.

In the 1990s, Madoff began steering some of his biggest clients to Konigsberg’s accounting firm.

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Paul Konigsberg worked for American fraudster Bernard Madoff, the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, ^[-1] and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. Prosecutors estimated the size of the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities fraud to be $64.8 billion, based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008.

Madoff founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and was its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. ^[-1] The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed "specialist" firms by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers. ^[-1] At the firm, he employed his brother Peter as senior managing director and chief compliance officer, Peter's daughter Shana Madoff, as the firm's rules and compliance officer and attorney, and his sons Andrew and Mark. Peter has since been sentenced to 10 years in prison ^[-1] and Mark committed suicide by hanging exactly two years after his father's arrest. ^{[-1] [-1] [-1]} Andrew died of lymphoma on September 3, 2014. ^[-1]