FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The former chief financial officer of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein’s law firm has become the latest of his former associates to plead guilty in the $1.2 billion fraud.
Irene Shannon pleaded guilty Wednesday to a conspiracy charge that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence. She faces sentencing in August.
Court documents show that Shannon oversaw much of the accounting and banking at the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm and was well aware of the Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors say she was involved in money laundering and a check-kiting scheme to keep the scam afloat.
Rothstein is serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to orchestrating the scam, which involved investments in fake legal settlements. About 20 people have been convicted in the case.
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