Former Madoff Employee Pleads Guilty in NY A former controller for imprisoned Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to history's largest Ponzi scheme. The U.S. attorney in Manhattan says Irwin Lipkin of Paramus, N.J., entered the plea Thursday. The charges included conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The prosecutor says Lipkin could get up to 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced in March. Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to stealing billions through a massive fraud. He's serving a 150-year prison sentence in Butner, N.C.