Madoff Accountant Stripped of CPA License

Bernard Madoff’s former accountant David Friehling has lost his CPA license after the New York State Department of Education, which licenses CPAs, charged him with multiple counts of professional misconduct.

Friehling, a former partner at Friehling & Horowitz in New City, N.Y., admitted to the professional misconduct charges, and the Department of Education’s Office of Professional Discipline voted on July 19 to revoke his CPA license.

Friehling issued yearly audit opinions on Madoff’s firm, Bernard L. Madoff Securities, from 1991 to 2008, but admitted that he never conducted any audit or examination of the now-imprisoned Ponzi schemer’s financial statements.

Friehling pleaded guilty last November to charges of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud and obstructing tax law administration (see Madoff Accountant Pleads Guilty). He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3.

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