by Laura Conaway

Bernie Madoff aide Frank DiPascali pleaded guilty today to charges including securities fraud, falsifying records and international money laundering. DiPascali told the federal court in Manhattan he'd been a knowing part of a scam. From the Wall Street Journal (subs. requ'd.):

"It was all fictitious. It was wrong, and I knew it at the time."

DiPascali, Madoff's former director of options trading, could get 20 years apiece for the fraud and money-laundering charges. His old boss is now serving 150 years in North Carolina.