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Bernard Madoff''s longtime accountant has been arrested on fraud charges, accused of aiding the man who has admitted cheating thousands of investors out of billions of dollars in the past two decades.

The charges against 49-year-old David Friehling come as federal authorities turn their attention to those who they believe helped Madoff fool 4,800 investors into thinking that their longtime investments were growing comfortably each year. Friehling is the first person to be arrested since the Madoff scandal broke three months ago.

Friehling ran an accounting office in a nondescript suburban building north of New York City, and quickly drew scrutiny. Experts in accounting said it would be preposterous for such a tiny firm to audit properly an operation the size of Madoff''s.

Bernard Madoff went from a $7 million penthouse to a tiny jail cell with cinderblock walls and linoleum floors after confessing he
carried out what may be the biggest fraud in Wall Street history to escape the pain of the 1990s recession.

The change in lifestyle for the 70-year-old financier was welcomed by angry investors who packed into a federal courtroom in Manhattan to watch Madoff plead guilty to cheating nearly 5,000 investors out of billions of dollars.

Madoff''s attorney argued he deserved to stay out of jail because other high-profile financial criminals accused in multi-billion-dollar frauds were not jailed until sentencing, but US District Judge Denny Chin disagreed, telling prosecutors he did not even need to hear their bail arguments.

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