One of Bernard Madoff's longest-serving employees pleaded guilty on Thursday to falsifying records, a conspiracy that a prosecutor said began in the 1970s at the start of the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Irwin Lipkin, 74, a former controller of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, told a Manhattan federal court judge that for years he fudged the books on Madoff's orders, but that at no point did he suspect the epic, decades-long fraud. "While working for Bernie Madoff, I made accounting entries in financial records that I knew were inaccurate," Lipkin said. "At no time before I retired was I ever aware that Mr Madoff or anyone else at the company was engaged in the Ponzi scheme reported in the media." Lipkin, who signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and falsifying documents. The charges carry up to 10 years in prison. Lipkin's son, Eric Lipkin, another former Madoff employee,
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