Bernie Madoff's "outside auditor" (popularly known as his "accountant") David Friehling already pleaded guilty to fraud in 2009, at which time he told judge U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein "I am truly sorry for the suffering of all the victims."
It turns out among the victims is Friehling's own son, who was five years old at the time he first handed over his birthday cash:
Testifying in the fraud trial of five former Madoff Securities office workers, Friehling said that even Josh trusted the Wizard of Wall Street to double his money.
"Dad, here's a check for my Madoff account," the tyke, now 28, announced after his fifth birthday party, Friehling told a Manhattan federal court jury.
The elder Friehling was 21 himself when he first "invested" over $15,000 in cash gifts from his bar mitzvah, birthdays and the money he'd made working for his parents' hotel with Madoff.
Friehling faces up to 114 years in prison, and is spilling his guts to the court with five other Madoff peeps on trial in the hopes they'll go gentle on him when he's sentenced.
