NEW YORK (JTA) — The last defendant charged in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme was sentenced to six months in prison.
Irwin Lipkin, who pleaded guilty to faking records while comptroller for Madoff’s firm, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, The Associated Press reported.
Lipkin, 77, cited health problems in pleading to be spared jail time, according to Bloomberg. He began working for Madoff in 1964 and was the first non-family member to be hired there.
He is one of 15 defendants to either plead guilty or be convicted at trial for participating in the multibillion-dollar scheme, whose victims included major Jewish institutions such as Yeshiva University and the Gift of Life Foundation.
Madoff has been in prison since 2009, where he is serving a 150-year sentence.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.